Body & Soul2 mins ago
Starmer To Act
But only on the fairly straightforward stuff that won't bring the people onto the streets.
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No best answer has yet been selected by douglas9401. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.And where are we getting the coking coal from, needed for the blast furnaces? Japan. JAPAN
Why? Because we closed the last coking plant (Kellingley - in Yorkshire!) in 2015
We also import other coal from USA and Australia, even though there are untold tons of the stuff under the ground in the UK, but we are not allowed to mine it.
Unbebloodylievable
The "crisis" enveloping BS (and its gradual decline) has been ongoing for probably fifteen years.
When Labour took power last July among their "top priorities" was to solve the steel problem and in particular to save the country's last blast furnaces in Scunthorpe. Just a month ago the owners of the Scunthorpe plant had stopped buying in iron ore and coking coal to keep them going.
Now the government has to convene an "emergency" sitting in Parliament saying that they have been "negotiating in good faith" with the owners of the plant to see it saved.
Even if it is, its contribution to our needs will be miniscule. In 2023 the UK produced 5m tons of new steel. China produced over 1,000m tons.
Meanwhile the newly formed "UK Steel" is fannying about with electric arc furnaces which melt down scrap steel.