Again, what did you want them to do?They did absolutely **** all. Wharton as well.
Its a disgrace
Where there's a will there's a way.................just saying.Again, what did you want them to do?
Pay for the raw materials that were far too highly in price at the time?
Allow them to continue breaking the law regarding emissions with no penalty?
Battle with the unions and change the shift patterns and pay rate reductions so workforce costs could be reduced?
Buy and stock pile all the steel at inflated rate?
Head and brick wall fella.Again, what did you want them to do?
Pay for the raw materials that were far too highly in price at the time?
Allow them to continue breaking the law regarding emissions with no penalty?
Battle with the unions and change the shift patterns and pay rate reductions so workforce costs could be reduced?
Buy and stock pile all the steel at inflated rate?
Meanwhile communities like Grangetown and South Bank fell apart with no work and no future. I'm sure losses would have been less than benefits that had to be paid.Ian MacGregor
“His tenure at British Steel was controversial. On his appointment, British Steel employed 166,000 staff and produced 14 million tons of steel annually at a loss of £1.8 billion. MacGregor was remorseless in his programme of plant closures and redundancies. A few of the redundancies were voluntary but were made against a background of mounting unemployment in the UK and damaged many traditional steel-working communities. By 1983, there were only 71,000 staff with losses stemmed to £256 million. The company was now moving towards profitability and would be in the vanguard of the Thatcher government's programme of privatisation.[2]“
One of the biggest costs to SSI at the time of closure was energy (as redwurzel has pointed out also) and one of the things being campaigned for by Anna Turley and representatives of SSI was to receive energy at cost price. Remove all taxes etc. This would have made the plant more viable (in the short term anyway)Where there's a will there's a way.................just saying.
I worked there at the time of closure. It was the best job I have ever had. 3 miles from home. Great hours. Decent pay. I was gutted when the place shut. I was also in a position where I was involved in high level meetings and knew excatly what we were up against.Meanwhile communities like Grangetown and South Bank fell apart with no work and no future. I'm sure losses would have been less than benefits that had to be paid.
When I started at BS 27.000 people were directly employed on site with thousands more in service industries (similar at ICI I believe). Grossly overmanned and made a loss but society actually worked with generation after generation following their fathers into working in the steelworks, everyone had a wage and spent money in shops, pubs working men’s clubs and society actually worked. Crime was nowhere near levels of today’s sad society but hell the rich got richer so all is well that ends well.
Part of Cameron's brown nosing the Chinese was to veto EU tariffs on Chinese steel imports. That was the final large nail in the coffin for Redcar blast furnaceUK Governments both Conservative and Labour made the UK an expensive country to produce steel.
I was told on here the highest individual cost of producing modern steel is energy (electricity).
In 2015 the UK had the highest energy costs in Europe when Redcar closed.
In 2015 the price of steel was the cheapest it had ever been in real terms - the word market had been flooded with stste subsidised steel, the chief culprit was China, but the UK Governement did nothing. In fact as Redcar was closing the Chinese President was in a pub in Oxfordshire having a pint with Cameron. Dave was trying to get him to loan half the money of a new planned Nuclear Power Station in Somerset.
It was dirt cheap, low grade, subsidised Chinese steel flooding the market which was a huge reason at the time. The rush to close Teesside works must have broke the world record...there were ships off the Redcar Coast waiting to buy coking coke which would have helped keep the coke ovens going at least, but the.Tories said they weren't allowed to subsidise due to EU laws,...strange then that Italy, Spain and others did just that, citing their steel industry as something like "national strategic importance" and pumped in many millions.Again, what did you want them to do?
Pay for the raw materials that were far too highly in price at the time?
Allow them to continue breaking the law regarding emissions with no penalty?
Battle with the unions and change the shift patterns and pay rate reductions so workforce costs could be reduced?
Buy and stock pile all the steel at inflated rate?
The plant was finished. It needed huge investment. Hundreds of millions wouldn't have done it. Even then you were buying it years, not decades.It was dirt cheap, low grade, subsidised Chinese steel flooding the market which was a huge reason at the time. The rush to close Teesside works must have broke the world record...there were ships off the Redcar Coast waiting to buy coking coke which would have helped keep the coke ovens going at least, but the.Tories said they weren't allowed to subsidise due to EU laws,...strange then that Italy, Spain and others did just that, citing their steel industry as something like "national strategic importance" and pumped in many millions.
Not long after, the Tories found hundreds of millions for the steelworks in South Wales.
Go figure..
Investment which had been cut in the preceding years. If you worked there you must know that.The plant was finished. It needed huge investment. Hundreds of millions wouldn't have done it. Even then you were buying it years, not decades.
Port Talbot and Scunthorpe were both in better condition than much of the Teesside Plant.
We've lost a dirty industry and it's being replaced with cleaner more sustainable opportunities.
It was privately owned....Investment which had been cut in the preceding years. If you worked there you must know that.
The final closure was because it was not sustainable to continue to produce steel at the cost it was costing. It's that simple.the final closure had absolutely nothing do with any of the claims you have made, phek knows what you were doing or saying at the 'high level' meetings you went to.