UK Steel Industry
Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Richard Fuller
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
This is not just about the obvious news stories about Port Talbot or the strip industry; it involves all Tata sites, including Aldwarke, Thrybergh, Stocksbridge, Shotton, Llanwern, Orb, Corby and Hartlepool; this is a UK steel crisis.
I reiterate that Tata has to behave like a responsible seller, and we need to remind it of its antics in 2010, when Kirby Adams, the then chief executive of Tata in Europe, tried to use skulduggery to shut Redcar. We solved that problem, but it took more than two years—two years in which there was not one hard redundancy. We need to remind Tata of its previous behaviour and not see it happen again.
British steel is not a basket case, a failed industry or a sunset industry; it is a very successful industry. We had evidence of that recently, when Liberty Steel bought Dalzell and Clydebridge—integral parts of any programme for Trident renewal. Teesside Beam Mill, Skinningrove, Scunthorpe, York, Blaydon and, indeed, Hayange in France, which is part of the long products division sold off to Greybull, are another success story of assets that investors want to buy into. They also demonstrate the European aspect of the previous Corus-British Steel envelope, and we still have sites in IJmuiden and Hayange.
British steel has always relied for its totemic name on its quality and its research and development. Places such as the Materials Processing Institute in Teesside at the old labs at Grangetown, as well as the research and development capacity in Rotherham and Sheffield, when linked with blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces, gives us the ability to control the destiny of metallurgy in our nation. That means we can innovate and create new products. That must be remembered.
I am interested in the notion of co-investment, whether that is in cash terms, or whether it is about an equity stake, a loan, R and D or, more importantly, Government policy. If we are to have a real discussion in this place, we have to look at the different options for co-investment. That is not about the individual commercial parties that may be interested in purchasing, but about putting ideas on the table so that we can actually plan an industrial strategy, because we have not done that in the last five years.
Let us take the issue of Chinese dumping. This is a new phenomenon; it has been going on for four and a half years. Before that, it was not happening. The circumstances have changed, and that is why the Government have to change the way they behave on the lesser duty rule and other legislation. There are no precedents, and that is why we cannot stick to rigid dogma, or even analytical argument around World Trade Organisation rules. On co-investment, I have to question whether we are properly looking at issues such as shale gas, and whether parties are being honest about the policy on that, because we are talking about gas-intensive industries.
On carbon capture and storage, the Government have to come clean. They have pulled the rug from under energy-intensive industries on carbon capture and storage. How will they maintain energy-intensive industries—whether it is chemical processing, shale, steel, light manufacturing, glass, cement or bricks—without a proper strategy on carbon? Taxes can be implemented under the EU emissions trading scheme or unilaterally, by bringing in the carbon price floor. They did that in the Budget some years ago, and they promised to give compensation. However, they did not calculate that if they wanted to compensate people for their own unilateral British tax, they could do so only via the European Union. They had not done the requisite work; they looked at the margins that a Treasury civil servant brought forward and just applied a rule, and they are now reaping the consequences of that.
Ultimately, Port Talbot, the strip and every single other site need time. In 2010, Redcar was saved over two years; SSI had six weeks and fell. We have to give British Tata sites time so that they can be saved. We need proper definitions of co-investment for the community to discuss.
Richard Fuller
The hon. Gentleman is talking a lot of sense. On the issue of time and co-investment, the Government could provide a bridging loan that extends beyond the period for which Tata is prepared to subsidise the steelworks, until a future buyer is found. Is that the sort of co-investment that the hon. Gentleman has in mind?
Tom Blenkinsop
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention and for giving me some more time. I really appreciate his comment.
Continued production is another pillar. If we are to save these sites, production has to be continuous or skills will be lost. In Redcar in 2010, the then regional development agency, One North East, along with Government agencies in Whitehall, provided a £60 million package. That came from RDA and central Government budgets. It retained people in the area on training courses while we—I was a union officer at the time—negotiated with other parties, such as Marcegaglia, Dongkuk and SSI, to get that site bought. It is vital to look at continuous production, time and other elements of co-investment, not just the cash element.
UK Steel Industry
Debate between Tom Blenkinsop and Richard Fuller(8 years, 9 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text
Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)
It is a pleasure to follow the Chair of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee who made a well-informed contribution, and it is a privilege to serve on that Committee with him. I commend the hon. Members for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland (Tom Blenkinsop), for Llanelli (Nia Griffith), and for Scunthorpe (Nic Dakin), my hon. Friend the Member for Brigg and Goole (Andrew Percy) and many other Members across the House whose employees or constituents are affected directly or indirectly by the tremendous challenges faced by the steel industry. Their constituents can know that their Members of Parliament are doing the best they can to get the best deal for their constituents, and they are doing it in the most effective way in Parliament. They are a tribute to their constituents.
The steel industry is undoubtedly facing massive changes. As my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman) mentioned, the growth of the Chinese steel industry—initially to serve the international market but over the last decade to serve its own domestic market—has created tremendous challenges for the rest of the world economy at a time of reduced demand both in China and internationally. It is fair to say that mistakes were made by the coalition Government and the preceding Labour Government in preparing the steel industry for those changes.
For example, if Members read about energy prices on page 12 of the Select Committee report, they will see that the big change in energy prices for the United Kingdom relative to our European competitors came under the Labour Government in 2005-06. In retrospect, we concede that that was an unsupportable burden for our energy intensive industries, and the Government were at fault not to assess that. Equally, the coalition Government were at fault in not responding to the pressures placed on them by Members of Parliament to make subsequent changes.
I heard what the Secretary of State said about business rates, but I hope that he and the Chancellor will look again at what can be done with that, not just in the steel sector but more broadly in industry and retail. Business rates seem to me a tax that is very relevant for change.
Tom Blenkinsop
The hon. Gentleman mentioned 2006, but in that period Corus was bought by Tata because of the economic signals, and it thought that it was a good purchase. Celsa in south Wales refitted the electric arc. Judging by the indicators, including energy prices, industry at that time thought that Britain was a good investment.
Richard Fuller
The hon. Gentleman’s intervention was timely because I am about to talk about industrial strategy. As he pointed out, mistakes can be made, and when the Committee had a vote on whether we should mention the industrial strategy, I was the only member of the Committee to vote against that. Personally, I believe that Governments’ industrial strategies are nonsense, a mirage, a deceit, or, too often, a failure. Governments can take actions, they can spend money and they can show their preferences and priorities. All of that I accept, but an industrial strategy becomes a straitjacket that limits our actions and can set us up for big problems in international trade.
Finally, the core of what we are discussing today are duties. The Secretary of State was absolutely right to point to our responsibilities under the WTO with regard to tariffs, and the fact that that sets a framework for us to respond. He is making those calculations in a careful way. It was interesting and I think welcome to many that he believes further changes on tariffs could be made within those rules. He is also right to say that changes to the lesser duty rule are not appropriate at this time.
As I mentioned in an intervention on the shadow Secretary of State, I am fearful of what the tariff and counter-tariff arguments can do. Many Members have talked about what the United States is doing and that we should therefore do more, but this is where the breakdown of global trade begins: tariff and counter-tariff, competitive devaluation, recession and slump. When we perceive that a change in tariffs is fair and not about trade but about dumping, I would say to hon. Members that just because we may believe that that is the case does not mean that that is how it is perceived by those on whom those tariffs are imposed. The consequence of the Chinese economy having a retaliatory effect on the United Kingdom and other countries is where the breakdown in global trade can begin. Free trade is a global good.
Richard Fuller
I think that the hon. Gentleman and I have a substantial disagreement on this point. Is he not worried that if the European Union were to follow America in imposing very high tariffs, the United States would impose even higher tariffs? Would we not get into a situation of ever-higher tariffs being imposed by either side, which would reduce global trade?
Tom Blenkinsop
In 2004, the Bush Administration imposed tariffs of more than 20% on European steel going into the US market. That level was eroded through negotiation. At this moment, China imposes tariffs on our products—British and European—that are already going into its market. So that tit-for-tat has already started. China already imposes huge tariffs on EU products going into its market. Why we are not protecting our own market and the European market—which, I might add, is the largest in the world—is beyond comprehension. I repeat that this is not about protectionism. It is about levelling the playing field to give British steel a domestic safe place to trade, within the European Union and externally. At this time, however, China is not abiding by World Trade Organisation rules, which must surely affect its future market economy status, which will be debated by the European Union.
This brings me to the point about market economy status. Currency manipulation by China has also acted as a subsidy to its exports to EU member states and other countries, while China reciprocates by taxing EU exports. This, along with direct export subsidies, support policies and the rapid growth of planned investments in leading and pillar industries in China’s five-year development plans, has led to sustained, deliberate overproduction and substantial excess capacity throughout Chinese manufacturing.
Even without MES, China has dramatically increased its exports to Europe by a remarkable 11.1% annual rate over the past 15 years—they rose from €74.6 billion-worth to €359.6 billion-worth in 2015. Put simply, the Government support Chinese MES, whether Britain is within the EU or outside it. I would argue that we may negotiate internally or externally, but we are in a far more difficult position as a population of 70 million than as the largest economic bloc in the world. The forecasts suggest that whether this is done inside or outside the EU, Chinese imports will rocket by between 25% to 50% in the next three to five years if MES is granted. That is devastating for not only steel, but every other industrial manufacturing sector. I come from the Teesside area and we do not just make steel there. We must not write off steel in our area, because we still have the beam mill in Redcar, Skinningrove in my constituency—