To think its a no brainer to renationalise British Steel

[feellikeahugefailure]

We need steel, it's just being killed by cheap dumping. Would be foolish to let it go under and not produce any steel in the country.

Also the mistakes with remploy show that it will probably cost more in benefits if the business close. Not to mention more long term affects on mental health from people that can't ever get back into work.

Would decimate the local area, not just the workers but the knock on affect of the workers not spending their money in the local area. One pound earnt could be spent 10 times.

[AuntieStella]

Re-nationalisation is not the only possibility for saving it, so no I don't think it's a 'no brainer'

One option under active consideration is a government-supported buyout by either workers or management, and that would have the same outcome of saving the plant.

The big stumbling block on any rescue plan could be EU rules, and so this whole sorry situation may well become a feature of the Brexit debate.

[feellikeahugefailure]

Ok sorry I should of been more generic with my title, some kind of government support ASAP is a no brainer.

The EU is party to blame for this in not stopping the cheap dumping and the energy tariffs.

[monkeysox]

They've already devastated teesside due to inaction. There are huge sites which need to be decontaminated at massive expense.

Fracking on the biggest site has been mentioned.
Horrific situation. So many people still without jobs six months later

[monkeysox]

Oh and yes we do need steel.

If there was ever a war or another situation which prevented imports the supplies would be cut off.

[WhattaMunter]

When news reports state that China is dumping it's cheap steel at low prices and that the market is being flooded with cheap steel, does this also affect quality?

[peggyundercrackers]

Yes something should be done to remedy the situation - I'm not sure renationalising the industry is the answer though. We should do what other Eu countries do and charge a premium for importing Chinese steel.

I don't think a management buy out is the way to go if the business is loosing money already.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

Agree with you OP, the metal market is slightly picking up but steel prices are hovering above the floor and alu is nowhere near what it was.

We need to stop being so reliant on other countries and bring our own industries back, we really do.

[mummymeister]

renationalising is not the answer. neither is subsidising the losses of PT alone which stand at £1,000,000 each and every day.

Punitive tariffs on the Chinese imports first step, money to modernise the plant from the govt next, then re-sell it.

This is every govts fault since the 1970's when we stopped investing in manufacturing and it was all about the service sector.

[monkeysox]

Chinese, Thai and Indian steel quality is poor. As soon as we have no means to produce our own their prices will shoot up

[Mistigri]

EU is party to blame for this in not stopping the cheap dumping and the energy tariffs.

The reason the EU has not imposed anti-dumping tariffs is because the UK vetoed this!!!!!!

[ABetaDad1]

A far better udea would be stop imposing stupid environmental costs on UK steel producers.UKelectric is expensive because the UK is part of the EU Emissions Trading System that imposes a cost of CO2 emitted by power stations that is lassed on in the price of electric.Oh and we justshut most of our coal power statio s just as world coal price collapsed so we cant take adva tage of that cheap fuel. China is nor that stupid.

[ABetaDad1]

Next time you hear a North London Labour lovey yapping about climate change. I would like to hear what the Welsh steel worker traditional labour voter has to say. Imposing hair brained climate change measures has a real economic cost - but thats OK as long as the chattering class Guardian reader can feel virtuous .Makes me sick.

[BillSykesDog]

The one plant in Port Talbot is costing £1 million pounds per day. No way would putting the whole of Port Talbot on benefits cost anywhere near that.

The thing is, we didn't actually make these low quality, low cost steel products in Britain for quite a while. We just started again when demand from China was so high they were buying up every bit of steel in the world for inflated prices.

That demand has gone, so now the market is correcting itself and Britain will return to high cost, high expertise specialised steel making.

There's no point nationalising an industry for which there a enormous costs and no market.

[SimpleSimonThePieMan]

Why? It's clearly not competitive on a global scale. Time to let it die.

[balia]

Ah, the famous 'not giving a shit' attitude, alive and well.

medium.com/mosquito-ridge/steel-crisis-they-do-not-give-a-shit-86516750a1e0#.anvzfve8i

Funny how none of that applied when the banks needed bailing out. $190 billion for the fat cats, but keeping a steel industry alive is too expensive?

[ABetaDad1]

The rule in any commodity industry slump is the lowest cost producers always survive the high cost producers go bust
That is what has happened with British steel. It is a high cost producer and it went bust.

[howmanyairmiles]

A bit like the coal industry the steel industry is pretty much dead in the water, the market should decide its fate and not the government.

After a presentation I attended yesterday I can predict another sector is heading the same way for different reasons but the result will be the same.

[SquinkiesRule]

I think re-nationalizing the steel industry and imposing high import tax on steel would help. We'd be getting better quality steel than from China and India at the same price if the import tax pushed up the price.

[balia]

But China isn't a low-cost producer, is it? The steel is cheap because it is subsidized by their government. They are selling it below the cost of production.

[EveryoneElsie]

What are the arguments against nationalisation?

[GiddyOnZackHunt]

I agree that the environmental responsibility handicaps our industry (what's left of it). Human Rights too.
When the EU buys commodities from countries that have low standards in both then we should be imposing a levy on those purchases to level the playing field and offset the costs of being responsible.
But this govt promises to buy Chinese steel and gives their leader dinner with the Queen and a ride in a golden carriage.

[balia]

I'm really interested in the answers to Elsie's question.

[feellikeahugefailure]

Me too.

The 1 million a day is just 66 pounds a worker. benefits could be very close to that, and that is only a short term loss when the price is low. As soon as it is out of buisness the price will rocket back up.

[wasonthelist]

Isn't ironic that our attempts to save the planet are going to lead to us paying to ship steel from halfway round the world with attendant emmissions? Not very joined up is it?

[BespokeStereophonicVinyl]

Elsie

Nationalisation distorts the market. There are a few cases of market failure in which governments do need to intervene in an economy (e.g. Defence, environmental protection) but in the case of an actual producer of an actual product, the market will work well and (sadly) uncompetitive producers should go to the wall. If Tata cant make money from it, I think it's safe to conclude that it is not possible to make money from it..

This is a structural problem, and I don't support the government essentially delaying the inevitable with my taxes.

There will be a lot of short-term unemployment, but that amounts to a few thousand people, when there are nearly 70 million who will be adversely affected if the government steps in (that money could be better spent elsewhere IMO)