Mark Saunders Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 There's something very majestic about a heavy industry plant. No frills, just honest endeavour. Built by generations; yet (seemingly) gone in a blink. DSCN1001.JPG Coal gone. Gas, electricity, nuclear, water, car manufacture, railways, shipping - all mostly sold off to foreign competitors. What's the point of a government (of whatever colour) if it's not to support its own people and the industries they work in. And it's not as if steel doesn't have a future..... There appears to be no National Interest displayed by this government and Nationalisation is fine as long as it involves only other Governments! Why is there no mention from the Government about the balance of trade deficit as the country has been loosing money since 1984! What if the steel industry was a Bank, they were Nationalised to save them! Mark Saunders Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted April 1, 2016 Share Posted April 1, 2016 Not all bad in UK industry. The banking industry is / has been extremely well looked after, especially since 2008. Brit15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted April 1, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 1, 2016 An interesting comparison between our energy costs and the rest of Europe, our energy costs are nearly twice theirs. I seem to recall the government promising that they would do something about energy prices. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Dava Posted April 1, 2016 Author RMweb Premium Share Posted April 1, 2016 Guardian leader makes it clear that current government cannot be trusted to defend UK industry over Chinese interests on steel and other issues http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/01/the-guardian-view-on-the-steel-crisis-port-talbot-matters-more-than-china We cannot afford to lose the strategic industrial capabilities of Port Talbot and Scunthorpe. They produce products which are much more important to the UK supply chain than the dodgy Chinese Rebar which Apollo points out is being dumped because the Chinese construction market has collapsed. The economics around tariffs, taxes and industrial electricity tariffs can be changed by government - if they choose to. Sorry to be political but this is another example of UK government seeing the lowest price of everything from China and the value of nothing home produced. Dava Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
APOLLO Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/chinese-imposes-tariff-on-eu-steel-imports-tata No comments needed. Brit15 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ohmisterporter Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 An interesting comparison between our energy costs and the rest of Europe, our energy costs are nearly twice theirs. I seem to recall the government promising that they would do something about energy prices. Isn't it interesting that our energy costs are higher then elsewhere in the EU and our energy controlling companies are foreign owned. It looks to me like there is much more joined up thinking in Germany and France etc. Buy your competitor's energy supply and ensure that his costs are much higher than in your own country. British governments of all colours have sat back and watched it happen. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2016 I can't believe the government are being so blasé about it, that some headed fool continued with his holiday only to come back and say he's known about it for a while. Not good enough I'm afraid. And this is NOT being racist he with his origins is not going to be an easy bedfellow for the Indian's to deal with Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanuts Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 this govt will do prescisley the sum square of nothing whilst coming out with the usual soundbites and platitudes whilst watching idly from the sidelines as another industry and region is sacrificed to foreign workers four years till the next election and all this will be forgotten buy the target voters they want to appease who will be happily counting the latest tax cut aimed at winning their votes and the sheeple of this country will blindly vote them in and bend over to take more Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomisd Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 I can't believe the government are being so blasé about it, that some headed fool continued with his holiday only to come back and say he's known about it for a while. Not good enough I'm afraid. And this is NOT being racist he with his origins is not going to be an easy bedfellow for the Indian's to deal with I'd worry more about his favourite film than his ethnic origin. A Rand disciple in charge of industrial policy, that is scary. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2016 Never liked him but didn't realise how stupid he is Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2016 They have announced that China are putting a 43% tariff on EU steel imported into China. I think we should put a tariff on their steel and have an emergency inquiry into what Gideon Osborne and Dome head Javid have actually been doing with the Chinese. Sackings, prison sentences and elections to follow where required. From a railfreight point of view this could be absolutely disastrous, much of DBs work depends on steel but it will knock on all over the country, GB are a worry as when they lose work they get quite preditory and go for whatever and whoever's work they can get which is not good for the industry at all. Also some quarries supply the steel industry and without it become unviable which happened with redmire. It's not too late but midnight is approaching, for anyone that cares about railfreight do whatever you can such as emailing your MP etc. You may think it's a drop in the ocean but worth a go Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgood Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 . Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgood Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 …... his favourite film …….. Have they got that right? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osgood Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 The new Steel Company of Wales Abbey Steel Works at Port Talbot in 1951: http://www.britishpathe.com/video/giant-steel-works-ready Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Pannier Tank Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 2, 2016 I was recently made redundant from the Service Sector serving the Steel Industry; Tata was one of my largest customers. It was sad seeing the Industry decline; over the last couple of years I noticed the number of lorries in despatch had reduced from 6 or so per day to around 3 per week. The writing has been on the wall for a number of years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Let's be clear. The 46% levy is on a specialised electrical steel of a type produced in modest quantities at the Tata Newport works, the former Orb Works, Tata state that they have not sold this steel to China for some time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
br2975 Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Stretching the OP a little... "The riddle of the EU".Germany makes the rules.The UK obeys the rules.France bends the rules.Italy breaks the rules.Spain & Greece don't know the rules Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
rockershovel Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 I don't for a moment believe, that this was completely unforeseen. It has been widely known for a long while, that Tata had bought the steel industry using its own money, and that means that cash flow is a chronic, permanent problem because debt servicing becomes the main priority. The Scottish Assembly certainly appears to have seen it coming, and taken some sort of action. Cameron is also now being forced to talk about their actions blocking tariffs by the EU, on Chinese steel. I'm another of Mr Javid's detractors, I'm afraid. I don't care whether he is brown, yellow or striped like a deck chair, but I cannot accept that a future PM (by some accounts at any rate) should be appointed on the basis of Affirmative Action. I'm also 100% unconvinced that we need MORE City bankers around the place. He either us the best man for the job, or he isn't, and right now he looks very much like the latter. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2016 I really can't stand any of this government or the so called bankers. They are so selfish ,they are all throw backs to Thatcher's greed is good culture. There was some idiot on TV earlier saying that loosing the steel industry was a small price to pay for getting the Chinese to invest in Hinckley point! Well keep fiddlers ferry going and invest in that with our own money I would love to take this idiot on consecutive weekends and let him state his views at half ten on a Friday night in pubs around the country. We could start in port Talbot, Scunthorpe, Redcar, Hartlepool ..... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimbus Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/01/chinese-imposes-tariff-on-eu-steel-imports-tata No comments needed. Brit15 I get the feeling that the end game has been brought forward. The Nim. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
12CSVT Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 It would be interesting to know how much of the 169 million tonnes that the eu produces is produced by the german machine. Its Britain not GREAT BRITAIN I think! Its GREAT to see that people on here are so passionate about the subject and believe in British Iron and Steel! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wagonman Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Much of the (short-term) problem is that there are no Tory votes to be lost in Port Talbot etc but plenty of votes, and large sums of money in "contributions" to be lost from the City financial institutions which is why we taxpayers had to bung £100bn+ at the bankers while the steel industry is likely to get nothing but platitudes and a crash course in how to stack supermarket shelves. Anyone, like Javid, who confesses to being a fan of that poisonous bitch Ayn Rand ought to be locked in a padded cell for the rest of his natural days. It is sadly true that Britain was the main objector to the EU imposing punitive tariffs on the Chinese steel industry – a case of EU right, Britain wrong – almost certainly due to Osborne's obsession with brown-nosing Xi and his crew, but ultimately it is the whole 'globalisation' movement that is the problem as has been increasingly obvious for the last 30 years. Thatcherism and its little brother Blairism were merely symptoms of the disease. Don't expect any help from this government... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted April 2, 2016 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 2, 2016 This government should resign NOW Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
pete_mcfarlane Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Not all bad in UK industry. The banking industry is / has been extremely well looked after, especially since 2008. Brit15 If a steel works closes then it doesn't take millions of peoples' savings with it, or bring down vast numbers of other companies. That's why Governments tend to prop up banks. They underpin every other industry in the country. This government should resign NOW I'm sure they'd love to call a general election right now and (given the state of the opposition) increase their majority a bit. This thread has descended in to that childish form of politics where accuse the Government of being evil/corrupt/useless/giant alien lizards. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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