The Ministry of Defence has downplayed concerns that reductions in Britain’s steelmaking capacity could undermine national defence projects, stating that the overall impact on critical infrastructure is “deemed low.”
Responding to a written question from Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick, Defence Minister Luke Pollard said the UK steel industry remains an important contributor to military production, providing “specialist cast and forged steel components for a range of UK defence programmes such as submarines, surface vessels and artillery barrels.”
However, Pollard noted that defence manufacturing depends on both domestic and foreign suppliers because some “specialist steel cannot be sourced in the UK.” As a result, the ministry assesses that the loss of domestic capacity would not significantly affect procurement for key programmes.
Steel procurement for major defence projects is monitored through the Department for Business and Trade’s annual Steel Public Procurement report, which outlines how materials are sourced and how much originates from UK production.
Pollard added that the government is preparing a national steel strategy intended to “consider implications for Defence and critical infrastructure and create the right conditions in the UK for a competitive and sustainable steel industry.”
The problem the UK has is virgin steel production as secure sovereign capability is dead.. even if we could produce the virgin steel we needed we would still need to import iron ore and coke.. we burned our strategically important deposits of both to power the industrial revolution and British empire… that well is dry.. now we need to make sure we have secure access to multiple sources of steel that cannot be cut.