Sheffield steel plant is 'beacon of hope' for UK steel industry
Union calls for inquiry over future of steel industry
One of Sheffield’s steelworks has been held up as a ‘beacon of hope’ for the industry in the UK.
It comes as delegates at the GMB union’s annual congress passed a motion calling for an investigation into how UK steel has ended up at crisis point.
Rotherham Steelworker Ian Kemp told the congress: “Maybe, just maybe, we need to look at the deeper issues affecting the industry.
“We need, for example, to look at the owners. In the last 40 years we’ve had an eclectic bunch of owners at the successor companies to the British Steel Corporation. “
He raised concerns about the ownership of some of the firms, and said Government policies needed examining, not just those specific to the steel industry, but also hings like energy and transport policies.
He added: “Look at the high cost of bills paid to our foreign owned energy firms that subsidise the bills of our competitors.
“Steel is an ideal commodity to be transported by rail. One of the mills where I work was even set up to be able to use canals. And yet, most steel is transported by road. Hardly the most efficient, cost effective or greenest option.
“Amongst the gloom, however, there is one beacon of hope.
“Sheffield Forgemasters. They’re thriving. And the only difference between them and the others, and make of it what you will, is, they’ve been nationalised.”
Forgemasters was nationalised during Boris Johnson’s time as Prime Minister.
It was nationalised in 2021, amid national security concerns because of work it carried out for the Ministry of Defence.
Work is currently being carrying out to create a new forge as part of the business. It is building a new 13,000-tonne forging line at its Brightside site. Steelwork for the company’s 30,000 sq m new machine shop on nearby Weedon Street is at an advanced stage,
However concerns have been raised over the future of steel plants in Stocksbridge and Rotherham, owned by Speciality Steel UK.
Previously part of Sanjeev Gupta’s Liberty Steel empire, Speciality Steel UK employs 1,450 at sites in Rotherham, Wednesbury and Stocksbridge, Sheffield. In October, minister for industry Chris McDonald MP said he had a “high level of confidence” a buyer would be found for the company.
Earlier this year, the Government announced plans for new laws which would give Government the option to bring another steel firm, British Steel, into public ownership.
Unions said that the same laws would allow for similar measures to be taken at other companies .