Category Archives: Steel industry

Keir Starmer urged to get tough with Trump as US tariff threat looms

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PM told to be as robust as Canada with the US president as the UK stages last-ditch talks to strike trade deal

Keir Starmer should fight back strongly against Donald Trump if he imposes punitive tariffs on British exports, senior UK and EU diplomats said on Saturday night, amid heightened fears that the US president could trigger a global trade war with devastating effects on the UK economy.

British government officials in London and Washington are working frantically this weekend to try to persuade Trump not to slap duties on more key UK industries on what he is calling “liberation day” on Wednesday. The US president has already announced plans for 25% levies on imports of cars, steel and aluminium to the US.

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UK steel industry calls for capped energy prices amid Trump trade war

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British steelmakers lobby for government to set limit to compete with France and Germany

The British steel industry has called for capped energy prices for heavy industry in order to match France and Germany, as companies grapple with the fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war.

UK Steel, a lobby group, has proposed the government set a maximum price for energy through a contract for difference (CfD), before an announcement of a new steel strategy.

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‘Trusted capital from your long-term ally’: Australian super’s US trip to bolster efforts to avoid Trump’s steel tariffs

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Super Members Council says summit may sway US president on tariffs on Australian industry after seeing scale of investment in US

Australia’s $2.8tn superannuation industry will bolster the Albanese government’s bid to secure an exemption from the Trump administration’s 25% tariffs on steel and aluminium imports this week.

A delegation of Australia’s largest funds will meet with US government officials from Monday, as part of a four-day summit designed to improve awareness of the industry’s long-term contributions to the US economy and its plans to more than double investment.

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Whyalla steelworks placed in administration after South Australia rushes legislation to secure its future

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Move allows government to act on millions of dollars in debts owed by GFG Alliance and secure future of mid-north operations

The Whyalla steelworks has been placed into administration after the South Australian government rushed legislation through parliament and pledged “one of the most comprehensive industry support packages that this nation has ever seen”.

Jim Chalmers, saying on Wednesday that securing the future for steel in Whyalla was important, said the federal government would have more to say on the matter “in due course”.

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UK rushes forward plans for £2.5bn steel investment after Trump announces tariffs

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US president’s announcement prompts government to publish green paper weeks ahead of schedule

The government has rushed forward plans for a £2.5bn investment in the UK steel industry after Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on all imports of steel and aluminium into the US.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, will publish a green paper entitled Plan for Steel on Sunday – several weeks before schedule – in a sign of how Trump’s tariffs are sending shock waves through a UK government desperate to kickstart economic growth.

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Australia ‘killing’ US manufacturing with aluminium imports, Trump’s trade adviser says

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Peter Navarro’s comments to US media, which follow president’s 25% tariff announcement, were shared on an official Trump administration account on X

Donald Trump’s trade adviser claims Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector with its imports of aluminium, as the Albanese government scrambles to try to secure exemptions to the president’s 25% tariffs on metal.

Anthony Albanese said he was still hopeful the local steel and aluminium industry could be spared from the tariff regime, even after escalating comments from the Trump administration criticising current trade arrangements with allies, including Australia.

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Assisted dying bill has lost Commons majority now high court signoff abandoned, says MP – UK politics live

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Danny Kruger says those who backed the bill did so under false premise after change to safeguards announced

There will be two urgent questions after 12.30pm: on the Clonoe inquest, which found that the SAS acted unlawfully when they killed four IRA terrorists in an ambush in 1992; and then another on the US steel tariffs.

A Northern Ireland Office minister will respond to the first, and a business minister will respond to the second.

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Trump announces 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum

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Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy

Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.

The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.

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Second Labour MP suspended by Labour amid offensive messages on WhatsApp group – UK politics live

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Burnley’s Oliver Ryan suspended as details emerge about Trigger Me Timbers group

Downing Street has announced a mini-reshuffle following the sacking of Andrew Gwynne as a health minister over the weekend.

Ashley Dalton is replacing Gwynne as a health minister. Dalton was a backbencher.

Forcing those whose asylum applications have been rejected or who have overstayed their visas on to planes has never been the most effective way to return people and never will be. Being punitive just scares people into hiding. They lose contact with the authorities, living a life on the margins.

Voluntary returns are far more effective, and the government should know this because it was the last Labour administration that commissioned independent agencies to run a voluntary programme that saw numbers increase. Building trust with refugee and migrant communities and treating people with dignity and humanity was far more successful than an enforcement approach.

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Trump to announce 25% aluminum and steel tariffs in latest trade escalation

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US president accused of ‘shifting goalposts’ by premier of Ontario for adding further tariffs on top of existing metal duties

Donald Trump has said he will announce new 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports into the US on Monday that would affect “everybody’, including its largest trading partners Canada and Mexico, in another major escalation of his trade policy overhaul.

The US president, speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, also said he would announce reciprocal tariffs – raising US tariff rates to match those of trading partners – on Tuesday or Wednesday, which would take effect “almost immediately”. “And very simply, it’s, if they charge us, we charge them,” Trump said of the reciprocal tariff plan.

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Trump and Japanese PM Ishiba talk tariffs and vow to stand against Chinese ‘aggression’

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Leaders praise each other at White House but president warns Japan could face tariffs if it doesn’t cut US trade deficit to zero

The Japanese prime minister, Shigeru Ishiba, and the US president, Donald Trump, struck a warm tone at their first meeting on Friday, with Tokyo avoiding tariffs that Trump has slapped on other allies – for now.

Heaping praise on each other at the White House, the two leaders pledged to stand together against Chinese “aggression” and said they found a solution for a blocked deal for troubled US Steel.

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Joe Biden delays order to end Nippon Steel bid for US Steel

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Suspension of executive order until 18 June gives courts time to review steelmakers’ legal challenge

The Biden administration has delayed until June an order for Nippon Steel to abandon its $14.9bn bid for US Steel, potentially giving the companies some time to revive the politically contentious deal.

Joe Biden blocked the acquisition on national security grounds on 3 January and the treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, said this week the proposed deal had received a “thorough analysis” by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).

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Tata Steel’s UK losses hit £1.1bn on cost of closing Port Talbot blast furnaces

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Losses quadruple from a year earlier after decision to end primary steelmaking in south Wales with loss of 2,500 jobs

Losses at Tata Steel’s UK operations ballooned to £1.12bn due to the cost of closing Port Talbot’s two blast furnaces.

Accounts for the Indian-owned company show that pre-tax losses quadrupled from £279m to £1.12bn in the year to the end of March due to restructuring costs associated with the closure of its blast furnaces and coke ovens at the site in south Wales.

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Trump says he will block Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid to acquire US Steel

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Acquisition of Pittsburgh-based steel producer by Japanese company has faced opposition from steelworkers and Biden

Donald Trump said on Monday that he intends to block Japan’s Nippon Steel’s $14.9bn bid to acquire US Steel in a move that will fuel further fears about a global trade war when the Republican returns to the White House next month.

“I am totally against the once great and powerful U.S. Steel being bought by a foreign company, in this case Nippon Steel of Japan” the US president-elect said in a statement on Monday, adding: “Through a series of Tax Incentives and Tariffs, we will make U.S. Steel Strong and Great Again, and it will happen FAST! As President, I will block this deal from happening. Buyer Beware!!!”

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British Steel to keep Scunthorpe blast furnaces operating past Christmas

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Confirmation follows progress at talks over government support for switch to less polluting technology

The owners of British Steel are to keep the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe site running past Christmas amid talks over government support for a switch to less polluting technology.

The government is thought to be considering aid for British Steel at the same level or even higher than the £500m pledged to Tata Steel, which closed its two blast furnaces in Port Talbot in September. However, no decisions on the shape of a package have been made.

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‘We need to hear about hope’: unions greet Keir Starmer TUC speech with mixed emotions

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Enthusiasm for public sector pay awards tempered by concern over winter fuel payment cuts and job losses

“We’re hearing an awful lot about tough times: it’s like being in a Dickens novel. What comes after the tough times? We need to hear about hope.”

Onay Kasab, the national lead officer for the Unite trade union, was addressing a leftwing fringe meeting, but similar sentiments reverberated through the bars and coffee shops at this week’s TUC congress in Brighton.

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Rishi Sunak speaks of ‘hurt and anger’ at daughters having to hear Reform activist’s racist slur about him – UK general election live

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PM responds to comments by Reform activists, who were filmed by Channel 4 reporter while canvassing in Clacton

Here’s the latest in the Guardian’s series on The broken years: Tory Britain 2010-24:

Unless the polls are wildly inaccurate, the Conservative party is heading towards a catastrophic defeat in the coming election.

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China-owned British Steel said to have requested £600m of taxpayer support

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Company is looking for help from next government to upgrade to less polluting technology

Chinese-owned British Steel has reportedly submitted a request for a package of taxpayer support worth £600m as it looks for assistance from the next government to upgrade to less polluting technology.

Government officials are due to review plans that set out the costs of switching from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces at the company’s steelworks in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, the Sunday Times reported.

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British Steel wins multimillion-pound contract for Egyptian rail project

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Around 9,500 tonnes of track will be provided for north African country’s first fully electrified mainline

British Steel has won a multimillion-pound contract to supply rail for a new route in north Africa, the company has announced.

Approximately 9,500 tonnes of track, produced in Scunthorpe, will be provided for Egypt’s first fully electrified mainline and freight network which stretches from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.

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UK officials recommend extending post-Brexit steel quotas

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Kemi Badenoch to make final decision on protections amid British industry fears of possible flood of imports

Whitehall officials have recommended extending post-Brexit steel quotas – a development that will come as a relief to the British steel industry, which had feared a rise in imports.

The “steel safeguards”, which were due to expire at the end of June, were first brought in by the EU in 2018, which feared that countries such as China would dump excess steel on the market after sales to the US were blocked by Donald Trump.

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