Category Archives: Steel industry

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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UK anti-dumping body recommends lifting limits on steel imports

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Proposal to suspend safeguarding measures on certain products follows news of Tata’s Port Talbot closure plans

The government’s anti-dumping body has recommended that measures limiting the import of certain steel products be lifted after the decision to close the blast furnaces at Port Talbot.

The Trade Remedies Authority, which is charged with protecting UK industry from dumped or subsidised imports, said its preliminary view was to advise the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, to suspend safeguarding measures on imports of hot-rolled flat and coil steel for a temporary period of nine months.

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‘Hypocrisy’: Tata builds vast India furnace despite Port Talbot emissions claims

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Owner says shutting Welsh blast furnaces will cut emissions, but it is opening a new one in India

The owner of the Port Talbot steelworks has been accused of “gross hypocrisy” as it prepares to open a new blast furnace in India, while citing a cut in carbon emissions for its decision to close two blast furnaces in south Wales, costing thousands of jobs.

Tata announced last week that up to 2,800 jobs would be cut under plans to close Port Talbot’s two huge blast furnaces and replace them with an electric arc furnace.

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Port Talbot steelworks owners expected to confirm blast furnace shutdown

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Union representatives protest over ‘crushing blow’ to workers and industry, with 3,000 jobs at risk

The owners of the Port Talbot steelworks are expected to confirm the shutdown of its blast furnaces on Friday morning, putting almost 3,000 jobs at risk.

Trade union representatives have gathered outside the gates of the works in south Wales to protest against the decision, which members have said will be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking.

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Tata Steel to shut down Port Talbot blast furnaces, putting 3,000 jobs at risk

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Firm rejects union plan, leaving UK on course to become only major economy unable to make steel from scratch

The owners of Port Talbot steelworks have rejected a trade union plan designed to keep its blast furnaces running, putting nearly 3,000 jobs at risk and leaving the UK on course to become the only major economy unable to make steel from scratch.

In what one union said would be a “crushing blow” to workers and UK steelmaking, Port Talbot’s parent company, the Indian-owned Tata Steel, told workers’ representatives that it could no longer afford to continue production at the loss-making plant in south Wales while it completed a four-year transition plan to greener production.

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Senator John Fetterman vows to block ‘outrageous’ $14.9bn US Steel sale

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Former mayor of Pennsylvania town of Braddock has long advocated for rights of US steel workers

The US senator John Fetterman has vowed to block the multibillion-dollar sale of US Steel to the Japanese company Nippon Steel, calling the potential deal “outrageous”.

The former mayor of the south-west Pennsylvania town of Braddock, which is home to a major US Steel plant, Fetterman has long advocated for the rights of American steel workers and positioned himself as a pro-union Democrat.

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Nippon Steel to acquire Pittsburgh-based US Steel for $14.1bn

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All-cash deal will see company keep name and headquarters in Pittsburgh, where it was founded in 1901

US Steel, the Pittsburgh steel producer that was once the world’s largest company and played a key role in the nation’s industrialization, is being acquired by Nippon Steel in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $14.1bn.

The price tag for US Steel is nearly double what was offered just four months ago by rival Cleveland Cliffs. US Steel, which rejected that offer, confirmed the offering price from Nippon early on Monday.

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Large parts of Port Talbot steelworks could be shut under Tata Steel cuts plan

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Unions say move could force Tata’s automative steel factory at Llanwern to close, costing 600 jobs

Large parts of the Port Talbot steelworks will be closed or mothballed for years, and would leave the plant and its few remaining workers reliant on imported steel, according to proposals under consideration by the owner, Tata Steel.

Tata Steel has briefed union representatives on the proposals but has yet to announce a final decision. Workers, who marched through the town in protest on Saturday, were left in limbo two weeks ago after the company’s board in India decided to pull an announcement about its plans for the plant at the last moment.

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Port Talbot steelworkers braced for up to 3,000 job cuts

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Tata Steel board thought to be meeting in India and decision over blast furnaces expected about noon

Tata Steel is expected to confirm as many as 3,000 job losses at its steelworks in Port Talbot on Wednesday, in what would be a devastating blow to the south Wales economy.

The board of Tata Steel is thought to be meeting in India, where it is headquartered, to make a final decision.

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Industrial Revolution iron method ‘was taken from Jamaica by Briton’

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Wrought iron process that drove UK success was appropriated from black metallurgists, records suggest

An innovation that propelled Britain to become the world’s leading iron exporter during the Industrial Revolution was appropriated from an 18th-century Jamaican foundry, historical records suggest.

The Cort process, which allowed wrought iron to be mass-produced from scrap iron for the first time, has long been attributed to the British financier turned ironmaster Henry Cort. It helped launch Britain as an economic superpower and transformed the face of the country with “iron palaces”, including Crystal Palace, Kew Gardens’ Temperate House and the arches at St Pancras train station.

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British Steel owner reportedly asking for urgent financial help from government

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Jingye Group understood to have told ministers that its blast furnaces are unviable without huge cash injection

The owner of British Steel, the UK’s second-biggest steel producer, is understood to be seeking an urgent package of financial support from the government.

Jingye Group, which bought the company out of insolvency just two years ago, has told ministers that its two blast furnaces are unlikely to remain feasible unless the Scunthorpe-headquartered company is granted financial aid, Sky News has reported.

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Redcar steelworks demolished in massive controlled explosion

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Basic Oxygen Steelmaking, which shut seven years ago, blown up using 1.6 tonnes of explosives

A former steelworks in Redcar has been pulled down in what is believed to be one of the biggest explosive demolitions in the UK.

In dramatic scenes – in which the structure disappeared in a cloud of dust and smoke with a blast that could reportedly be heard eight miles away – the 65-metre-high Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant was blown up on Saturday morning.

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Liberty Steel to cut 200 jobs but create up to 160 more in plant move

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Jobs set to go at Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and at West Bromwich, but new posts to be created at Rotherham

Liberty Steel has announced plans to cut 200 jobs in the UK at plants in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, as industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals group looks to shift production to Rotherham.

The company said on Friday that it would cut 160 jobs at a plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and 45 in West Bromwich in the West Midlands as it focused production on the plant in Rotherham, also in South Yorkshire.

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Britain and US agree on steel tariffs as hopes of broader trade deal recede

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Pact ends months of tensions but talks on full free-trade agreement remain far off

The UK has struck a deal with the US to remove tariffs on British steel exports, although trade experts warned a broader trade deal between the two countries remains far off.

The agreement was struck after UK’s international trade minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, met her counterpart, the US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, on Tuesday evening in Washington.

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London Stock Exchange suspends trading in more Russian firms

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James Rutherford resigns from board of Evraz, steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich has stake

The London Stock Exchange has suspended trading in more Russian companies, while an independent director resigned from the board of Evraz, the steel and mining group in which Roman Abramovich holds a 29% stake.

The LSE suspended trading in the remaining eight companies with strong links to Russia that were not included on a list of 27 companies suspended on Thursday.

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