Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Viral_Jim]

I realise this might get me shot down on most street corners in the UK, but I'm confused as to why everyone is so attached to steel production in the UK.

The plant is (supposedly) losing £1m/day and even Tata who have a good domestic use for all that steel (JLR) aren't making it profitable so why keep it? Yes I know all about the UK being great and making stuff and all that jazz, but steel is a commodity product and making it isn't all that clever or hard to do. So, that said, why would you choose to make a commodity product somewhere with (comparatively) high wages, high energy costs and in a location where you have to import all the raw material. Just seems like a poor business model.

The UK should be focussing on the kind of manufacturing we excel at - the difficult stuff - like bits for the Airbus A380 & JSF, Rolls Royce Aero engines, trick AWD systems, let the dirty simple manufacturing go to parts of the world where it makes more sense - BRIC countries for example.

[tigers_gonads]

I realise this might get me shot down on most street corners in the UK, but I'm confused as to why everyone is so attached to steel production in the UK.

The plant is (supposedly) losing £1m/day and even Tata who have a good domestic use for all that steel (JLR) aren't making it profitable so why keep it? Yes I know all about the UK being great and making stuff and all that jazz, but steel is a commodity product and making it isn't all that clever or hard to do. So, that said, why would you choose to make a commodity product somewhere with (comparatively) high wages, high energy costs and in a location where you have to import all the raw material. Just seems like a poor business model.

The UK should be focussing on the kind of manufacturing we excel at - the difficult stuff - like bits for the Airbus A380 & JSF, Rolls Royce Aero engines, trick AWD systems, let the dirty simple manufacturing go to parts of the world where it makes more sense - BRIC countries for example.

That figure is the total loss across all plants in the UK iirc 

As for the rest.............

Lets just say that your thinking like a tory politician accountant.

Steel manufacture is a basic must in the industrial world.
Simple as that as that.
Without it, you cant build sweet f all unless you line the pockets of a foreign power who owns the industry.
The same is said for the utilities industry too.
Over the last 30 years or so, this country has sold off its family silver to the highest bidder for short term profit of a few merchant bankers who probably had the politicians of the day on the board of directors 

We cant wipe our own arse anymore without paying some foreign power for the privilege 
This country has nothing anymore that we can call our own sadly 
Yes we may have some absolutely brilliant minds out there but most of the research is funded by foreign money.
And what little we do fund out of our very own shallow pockets is then sold off to a foreign power for the short sighted profit of the few 
In fact if we ever loose the slice of the profits that the financial sector brings in, we are a third world nation 

I would love to see a government have the balls to compulsory purchase back the basic infrastructure of this nation but sadly, those politicians of the day along with there money grabbing chums in the city have re wrote the rules to stop that 

The gap between the elite of the day and the minions has never been larger imo 

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

As far as Im aware its losing money due the the price of steel falling off a cliff, which is due to he Chinese flooding the market.
If it was losing that amount of money in normal market conditions then its unlikely to be worth trying to save it in my opinion.

[05omegav6]

Well, given as the bulk of our heavy industry is owned by other people, what would you suggest

[TheBoy]

Allowing TATA to import steel to build their cars here is arguably a better approach than forcing them to move their manufacturing plants overseas, whereby we would lose both the steel plants AND the car plants...

I think you will find that Tata already make JLR vehicles in China and Brazil

So it wouldn't take much to persuade them to close the UK plants...

Exactly.  But would the western world want to buy a premium priced luxury car from China?

I do genuinely believe ze german has frecked up badly on that, but maybe its a different ploy

[TheBoy]

The plant is (supposedly) losing £1m/day and even Tata who have a good domestic use for all that steel (JLR)

I think you aren't aware of how Tata operates its companies - JLR will get their steel from whichever source they feel best, and get no special pricing from Tata Steel.