Economics
Steelmaking's Demise at Place of Its Birth Signals Wider Crisis
- European producers have been cutting output amid price rout
- Cheap Chinese exports, high costs have hurt U.K. companies
Welders work on pieces of steel at a factory in Rochester, U.K.
Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
A flurry of plant closures and insolvencies show it’s making less economic sense to produce steel in Britain, but it’s a crisis that’s hurting the whole of Europe and not just the country where the industry was born.
Once the hub of the steelmaking world, northern England lost its last blast furnace this month as Tata Steel Ltd. shut the Redcar plant and announced it was shedding another 1,200 jobs. In addition, 16 steel and engineering companies making up Caparo Industries Plc, owned by House of Lords member Swraj Paul, went into administration.