Redcar Steel plant

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Scuffers

Original Poster:

20,887 posts

280 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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shirt said:
redcar produces its own power using the byproduct gas from the steelmaking process as fuel.
nothing like as much as the plant needs though.

wc98

11,084 posts

146 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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528Sport said:
This crap country needs to scrap its pointless "green" taxes, buy local and start bloody well looking after our own. Until then as others have said the foreign suppliers are sitting raking it in laughing all the way to the bank.
As for the pic above of the failed part yup that's what you get. Sad state of affairs.
that works for me.

dudleybloke

20,428 posts

192 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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I want to kick Al Gore in the balls. Repeatedly.

PRTVR

7,412 posts

227 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109039
Petition to save the steel plant, don't know if it will do any good but cannot do any harm, I feel its so unfair, allowing steel produced in highly polluting plants into the country, at the same time shackling you own producers with extra costs from environmental costs.

dudleybloke

20,428 posts

192 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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I think steel production is an important strategic resource that we must keep.

FiF

45,388 posts

257 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Primary steelmaking is not the only strategic resource that is being destroyed. Engineering steels, stainless steels and fabricated products down the chain are all at risk and disappearing fast, in some cases disappeared from our manufacturing base.

Scuffers

Original Poster:

20,887 posts

280 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Yes but it's only 1700 northerners and the EU says we can't help them, etc etc.......

dudleybloke

20,428 posts

192 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Yet another reason to tell the EU to sod off.

V8 Fettler

7,019 posts

138 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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The French buy French cars, the Italians buy Italian cars, the Germans buy German cars and the British buy German cars. As a country we don't generally support out own industries.

Chicken Chaser

8,127 posts

230 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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PRTVR said:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/109039
Petition to save the steel plant, don't know if it will do any good but cannot do any harm, I feel its so unfair, allowing steel produced in highly polluting plants into the country, at the same time shackling you own producers with extra costs from environmental costs.
Signed. I'm local to the plant and want to see it saved, its not just an industry up here, its a way of life for a lot of people. 1700 staff plus all the suppliers and local business who piggyback of the earnings of those at the plant.

Govt needs to step in on this and show that it believes in committing to issues other than in London. Like has been mentioned, we are being strangled by the lowest quality foreign imports which don't have to comply to the same rules as we have here.

IroningMan

10,285 posts

252 months

Wednesday 30th September 2015
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Mr GrimNasty said:


The 'locked in' green costs are expected to raise UK price a further 47% by 2020 for large users.
Somewhere in this country there's a whole Government Department giving itself a pat on the back for putting us at the top of that chart and setting such a fine example to the rest of the world.

legzr1

3,867 posts

145 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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andymc said:
528Sport said:
legzr1 said:
crankedup said:
Nobody can be more keen than I to see our industries grow and thrive, the sad truth is that in this situation the owners simply cannot continue to pour in millions of loss pounds. Its hard economic facts in a Global market, if it was owned by Government maybe they would keep the place open, but very unlikely.
I hope that our Government can offer more support to the working people affected by the closure than was offered when the coal mines were closed!
It can be done and done well.

Consett was a large 'steel town' devastated by closure but time, investment and intelligent thinking helped greatly.
Yes investment in Consett
National house builders build expensive homes (that locals cant afford) on cheap land (money leaves local economy) using some subbies from down sarf. I own one of those homes and spoke to some of the contractors!

The likes of Costa, Starbucks and other chains setup shop providing some low paid jobs. Works bloody well. My house is worth £30K less than I paid for it in 2007.

This crap country needs to scrap its pointless "green" taxes, buy local and start bloody well looking after our own. Until then as others have said the foreign suppliers are sitting raking it in laughing all the way to the bank.
As for the pic above of the failed part yup that's what you get. Sad state of affairs.
agreed, Consett has not recovered unless you own the local Wetherspoons
You both misunderstand - I'm not saying Consett is fully recovered and is doing as well as it was in its heyday - what I'm saying is that Government (both local and national) got in there quick and set up help 'stations' that really did help.

The same thing happened with Alcan in Lynemouth (together with a tidy sum from Alcans owners - unfortunately, SSI are skint so I don't expect much financial help from them).

Now, compare and contrast to the numerous other Nothern ghost towns left to rot when industries like mining and ship building stopped and an unforgiving Government did next to nothing to help.

Nope, Consett isn't Chelsea or Cantebury but it's a hell of a lot better than it might have been.

It's been over 10 years since I visited the place but it was jumping on a Saturday night.



As an aside, I heard yesterday that the government were talking about helping out with energy costs for SSI at Redcar - to start in 2017....

speedy_thrills

7,775 posts

249 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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Taking a step back and looking at the wider global economy however most commodities are falling in price. The global price of steel is at it's lowest level in over a decade and commodity cycles tend to be of quite extended duration. Intervention may well support the subsidisation of steel production would be a very long-term strategy (decade+). Steel plants are being idled and closed worldwide. It looks like the parent group have invested a lot of money into Redcar so mothballing the plant during a time of low prices would seem like a prudent business decision.

However I appreciate it's hard on the plant workers who will now have to find new employment because they can't sit around waiting for the plant to reopen.

Robertj21a

17,272 posts

111 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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speedy_thrills said:
Taking a step back and looking at the wider global economy however most commodities are falling in price. The global price of steel is at it's lowest level in over a decade and commodity cycles tend to be of quite extended duration. Intervention may well support the subsidisation of steel production would be a very long-term strategy (decade+). Steel plants are being idled and closed worldwide. It looks like the parent group have invested a lot of money into Redcar so mothballing the plant during a time of low prices would seem like a prudent business decision.

However I appreciate it's hard on the plant workers who will now have to find new employment because they can't sit around waiting for the plant to reopen.
Totally agree. It's now, unfortunately, far too late to expect it to keep working (and the mothballing could become permanent) so the focus needs to be totally directed at the future needs of the community as a whole.

PRTVR

7,412 posts

227 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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speedy_thrills said:
Taking a step back and looking at the wider global economy however most commodities are falling in price. The global price of steel is at it's lowest level in over a decade and commodity cycles tend to be of quite extended duration. Intervention may well support the subsidisation of steel production would be a very long-term strategy (decade+). Steel plants are being idled and closed worldwide. It looks like the parent group have invested a lot of money into Redcar so mothballing the plant during a time of low prices would seem like a prudent business decision.

However I appreciate it's hard on the plant workers who will now have to find new employment because they can't sit around waiting for the plant to reopen.
The problem comes if the plant doesn't reopen, if you let dumping of cheap steel into the country, the financial point at which it can reopen will never materialise, then you become dependant on foreign imports.
It's quite ironic on the BBC they showed a picture of the steel plant alongside a large group of wind turbines, one of the reasons that the costs are rising for British industry.
It has to be remembered that it will not only the 1700 people who will lose their jobs there will be many more in support industries, this is into an area of high unemployment, not a pleasant prospect for the people made redundant.

Murph7355

38,839 posts

262 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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Resolving the costs of doing business in this country has to be at the heart of any government intervention. And it must apply equally to all industry sectors.

Artificially propping up the price of a product is as bad as artificially keeping it low. The downstream organisations who depend on it then become equally uncompetitive - a government cannot prop up all prices in that way.

The energy price chart is interesting. A similar one on business taxes and regulations would be equally illuminating.

Digga

41,125 posts

289 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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Murph7355 said:
Resolving the costs of doing business in this country has to be at the heart of any government intervention. And it must apply equally to all industry sectors.

Artificially propping up the price of a product is as bad as artificially keeping it low. The downstream organisations who depend on it then become equally uncompetitive - a government cannot prop up all prices in that way.

The energy price chart is interesting. A similar one on business taxes and regulations would be equally illuminating.
^All of this, 100%.

If governments start actively trying to pick winners and losers - as they did with further education in the 90s, pumping out more IT graduates than the market was ever going to recruit - it rarely ends well. Instead they need to look at overall redtape and global competitiveness.

I'm still waiting for Dave's bonfire of the quangos...

Blib

45,377 posts

203 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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Digga said:
I'm still waiting for Dave's bonfire of the quangos...
Last I heard, he'd set up an independent body to look into this. yes

Scuffers

Original Poster:

20,887 posts

280 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
quotequote all
Digga said:
Murph7355 said:
Resolving the costs of doing business in this country has to be at the heart of any government intervention. And it must apply equally to all industry sectors.

Artificially propping up the price of a product is as bad as artificially keeping it low. The downstream organisations who depend on it then become equally uncompetitive - a government cannot prop up all prices in that way.

The energy price chart is interesting. A similar one on business taxes and regulations would be equally illuminating.
^All of this, 100%.

If governments start actively trying to pick winners and losers - as they did with further education in the 90s, pumping out more IT graduates than the market was ever going to recruit - it rarely ends well. Instead they need to look at overall redtape and global competitiveness.

I'm still waiting for Dave's bonfire of the quangos...
agreed,

Long term propping up is not what's required, the reality is although the current spot price is very low, this is literally a blip because of dumping, it's quite likely n the next 6-12 months to swing the other way, at which point there will be a shortage and the price will spike.



The Don of Croy

6,090 posts

165 months

Thursday 1st October 2015
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It would be nice to think our government could do something about the parlous state of British iron and steel production.

But then it would also be nice to think an island floating on coal might use it's natural resources to best effect.

But until we get over the thought we're leading the World in environmental sustainability bolleaux we're hamstrung.

Still, it's nothing an upsurge in immigration can't solve...