Tata Steel to sell UK all assets

[sutty27]

Which colour persuasion were they?....

:huh:

 

 

Quite frankly, I'm a bit surprised the Chinese actually import 'any' steel from anyone!....Is it way of surmising 'their' steel is all a bit naff, and therefore buy something of quality from Europe?

 

I don't think they produce the specialised steels that we produce.

[foxy lady]

:huh:

 

 

 

 

I don't think they produce the specialised steels that we produce.

 

The amount of steel that we export to China is miniscule anyhow. Labour costs in the UK amount to around $200 per tonne compared to around $10 in China and the far east. It would cost $50 to get a tonne of steel to China.

 

Hot rolled steel is on the world markets at as little as $375/tonne If China can't produce the steel it needs it can import it from many places far cheaper than the UK. This is all a bit of a red herring. The USA imposed huge import tariffs on steel a month ago. The Chinese have responded by imposing their own tariffs on imports. But as the type of steel we could export to China might be subject to tariff it makes a headline. In practice it is a tax on that type of steel imported from Korea.

 

Just to get to the crux of the matter. The UK is a high wage economy. Our energy prices are high because we are going green. Our business taxes are high. We do not mine iron ore. There is absolutely no way at all we can compete in the world market producing bulk low tech materials like steel that require low skilled manpower and use lots of energy.

 

---------- Post added 02-04-2016 at 11:57 ----------

 

Meanwhile China imposes a 46% import duty on the type of high-tech steel made by Tata in Port Talbot.

 

This whilst Cameron, Osborne and Javid actively fight to keep tariffs for Chinese steel imports as low as possible.

 

Never mind though, Cameron has "raised his concerns" with the Chinese President, so that's alright then.

 

By the way. Do you know how much steel the UK imports from China. That's the China that is supposedly dumping steel on our markets and crippling the UK's steel industry?

[sutty27]

The amount of steel that we export to China is miniscule anyhow. Labour costs in the UK amount to around $200 per tonne compared to around $10 in China and the far east. It would cost $50 to get a tonne of steel to China.

 

Hot rolled steel is on the world markets at as little as $375/tonne If China can't produce the steel it needs it can import it from many places far cheaper than the UK. This is all a bit of a red herring. The USA imposed huge import tariffs on steel a month ago. The Chinese have responded by imposing their own tariffs on imports. But as the type of steel we could export to China might be subject to tariff it makes a headline. In practice it is a tax on that type of steel imported from Korea.

 

Just to get to the crux of the matter. The UK is a high wage economy. Our energy prices are high because we are going green. Our business taxes are high. We do not mine iron ore. There is absolutely no way at all we can compete in the world market producing bulk low tech materials like steel that require low skilled manpower and use lots of energy.

 

We used to, but we no longer do because its cheaper to import it.

That being the case we might as well import the finished product because it must be better for the environment to process the ore close the mining sites.

[Mister M]

I wonder why Nigel Farage has been saying that if voters decide to stay in the EU then that would sound the death knell for the British steel industry, when he, and his UKIP MEPs voted against an EU move that could've protected the steel industry from cheap Chinese imports.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-vote-against-eu-law-that-could-have-helped-british-steel-a6964476.html

[foxy lady]

I wonder why Nigel Farage has been saying that if voters decide to stay in the EU then that would sound the death knell for the British steel industry, when he, and his UKIP MEPs voted against an EU move that could've protected the steel industry from cheap Chinese imports.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-vote-against-eu-law-that-could-have-helped-british-steel-a6964476.html

 

Do you know how much steel the UK imports from China?

[the_bloke]

By the way. Do you know how much steel the UK imports from China. That's the China that is supposedly dumping steel on our markets and crippling the UK's steel industry?

 

The 2014 figures I used for steel production tonnage in the UK had Chinese steel being about ~650k tonnes of the 7 million we import. Less than 10%

 

There's a good article here: (sorry if someone has already linked it)

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/uk-steel-industry-failure-eu-state-aid-rules-imports-exports-prices-2016-3

[sutty27]

I wonder why Nigel Farage has been saying that if voters decide to stay in the EU then that would sound the death knell for the British steel industry, when he, and his UKIP MEPs voted against an EU move that could've protected the steel industry from cheap Chinese imports.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-vote-against-eu-law-that-could-have-helped-british-steel-a6964476.html

 

Why blame UKIP for something they had no power to change.

 

But despite being adopted by the European Parliament, the reforms were blocked by a group of 14 EU countries including Britain, at the EU Council.

 

Mr Farage did not take part in a vote in the European Parliament on the overall legislative resolutions on 16 April, 2014, while other Ukip MEPs abstained.

 

The European Council is the Institution of the European Union that comprises the heads of state or government of the member states, along with the council's own president and the president of the Commission.

Edited April 2, 2016 by sutty27

[JFKvsNixon]

The 2014 figures I used for steel production tonnage in the UK had Chinese steel being about ~650k tonnes of the 7 million we import. Less than 10%

 

There's a good article here: (sorry if someone has already linked it)

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/uk-steel-industry-failure-eu-state-aid-rules-imports-exports-prices-2016-3

 

Very interesting article.

[foxy lady]

The 2014 figures I used for steel production tonnage in the UK had Chinese steel being about ~650k tonnes of the 7 million we import. Less than 10%

 

There's a good article here: (sorry if someone has already linked it)

 

http://uk.businessinsider.com/uk-steel-industry-failure-eu-state-aid-rules-imports-exports-prices-2016-3

 

I've been reading that. Actually the 650,000 tons refers to Asia, which includes Korea, Japan Taiwan, India and China. So imports of Chinese steel are trivial compared to the 4.5 million tonnes we import from Europe, or the 12 million tonnes we produce here..

All China's over production is doing is driving down the price of steel on world markets. It is not flooding the UK with cheap Chinese steel. So putting in a trade barrier against Chinese steel imports is pointless.

More interesting is our reliance on imported steel goods. We import around 10,000,000 tonnes of steel in the form of goods each year. Steel that eventually ends up as scrap in the melting pot. Another reason why we don't need to produce from iron ore.

But the irony is that much of that 10,000,000 tons will actually be cheap Chinese steel, used by our competitors and sold to UK customers because it helped overseas manufacturers undercut local producers.

Edited April 2, 2016 by foxy lady

[Harrystottle]

As far as I can see this is part of the de-industrialisation of Europe for the benefit of global capitalism.

 

So we put climate change levies on energy production and invest in renewables to show how seriously we take climate change.

 

Then we buy goods from China, who have more coal fired power stations than soft Mick.

 

It's a bit hypocritical, surely?