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.
That isn’t actually true.
UK never had any high quality iron ore deposits.
Even in WW2 the ore came from Sweden etc
We do have native coking coal if we fancy getting it out of the ground – that is but zero politics.
Britain was the largest iron producer in the mid 19c by 1815 it was the biggest producer in Europe and by 1850 was producing over 2 million tons a year.. it had developed a number of methods of managing the low quality British ore via puddling and rolling techniques.. the British railways bridges and our infrastructure structure was build on British ore and then a we export railway iron like there was no tomorrow
None of which makes it a good idea to try and use substandard ores that will require further expensive pre and post processing.
For most modern steels our indigenous ores are hopeless – for defence grade steels forget it.
In all for UK virgin steel production using our coking coal and Swedish/Australian ore.
We need to do something economically viable an not overt nonsense…
Tata were carrying out tests using hydrogen, instead of coke at there plant in IJmuiden. I did ask the question on one of the steel groups about could this have been used in Port Talbot and was told we don’t have the infrastructure to get the hydrogen to Port Talbot
Hydrogen is also crazy expensive as we don’t have any significant white hydrogen in UK.
I’d say virgin steel making is one of the area that need a pass ticket in net zero.
The iron production was from iron stone not the rich hematite ores tnat are used for the last 100 years. Concentration of iron in iron stone is far lower, its more expensive to extract and has higher phosphor content. Iron from Spain was imported throughout the Middle ages because the high phosphate content making English iron brittle. Geology and balance sheets don’t magically change by political wishful thinking
British iron ore mines often shutdown as soon as iron ore could be imported by railways. Then the labour force was available to expand the iron works, which switched to steel as the principle product only after the Bessemer process had been invented.
There are sources we could exploit however the government has banned new coal mines because of their mad obsession with net zero (which just means it happens in another country and we then import it so actually does sweet f-all regarding climate change and it now means extracting it AND shipping it half way around the world).
And what makes you think that British coal is going to be cheaper than Malaysian open cast coal? A single bulk carrier has the capacity up to 400,000 tons. Shipping is cheap and costs are lower. Theres a reason why coal mining ended in western Europe.
It would be interesting if a full scale war broke out if the supply of these critical steels would be as readily available . Short term thinking yet again by Whitehall
There’s no aluminium ore in this country and yet somehow in the largest war in human history 10,000s of planes were built from Aluminium.
Yeh, but we had a navy capable of escorting the ships carrying the aluminium. 7 frigates and 6 destroyers gives an operational ready fleet of may 5 escorts, surge to 7 may be. Ok there is NATO. ENATO had about 100 escorts and the USN has about 90, rule of 3 suggests that about 30 to 40% would be available. So using round numbers of 200 escorts that would give 80 available normally, spread across the globe as the US is increasingly leaning towards the Pacific. ENATO would have to cover the Med, Atlantic, North Sea and Baltic with 40 or 50 escorts (note I am rounding up a little bit all of the time (feeling a little optimistic this morning 🙂 ). Even so that is not a lot of escorts to defend a huge area with a large number of merchant vessels bobbing around in it!
As a maritime power dependent on the sea lines of communication (SLOC) for our economic wellbeing we have allowed our navy to decline to a ludicrous state.
Cheers CR
Well we have no defence and if the mandarines think it doesn’t matter that we can’t get supplies locally then I suggest they reopen their history books. But then the people in charge in this country, the civil servants, want this country to fail, they want it invaded, they bloody nearly succeeded in wwè by now they will succeed
Once again. There is no Aluminium ore in this country and yet somehow 10,000s of Aluminium airframe aircraft were built during the largest war in human history. I suggest that you open the history books and stop making assumptions
Problem as i see Ron, is the fact that we are not a nation full of seafaring buccaneers with a massive commercial shipping fleet. In addition, the VL Carriers are thier and they are also a massive target. Gone are the days of a convoy hiding by elaborate manouvering etc, they just watch them from space. And ultimately we have the same issue a prior, all roads lead to Rome so why look for them, just hang around and take them when they arrive.
Yes, we melted down lots of things to make stuff, we imported ship loads by massive convoys and wrecked our economy and lost thousands of brave people as well. Today those convoys won’t happen missiles will take them all out king before they get across. And once we have the material here we have nothing to manufacture it into the stuff actually required. Look at Ukraine, even war turn it is making more than the rest of Europe putbtigerher
It never ceases to amaze me, the knowledge some of you seem to have about every single subject.
And to be able to create such Intricate aguments !!!
Perhaps in today’s world the ability to read books remember the content and form an objective opinion based on fact is rare. Thats not as emotional satisfying as being disgusted of Tunbridge Wells and engaging in group think.
I guess some people must read a lot of books then.
Maybe we should all go back to reading books, that way we can all be experts in everything.
Can you reccomend any Tunbridge Wells Books ?
The government would downplay this ,I wouldn’t trust this government to deliver a pizza 🍕 never mind steel.
Indeed. And I see the bias within BBC news has also caught up with it….
I cringe at the thought of watching or reading any BBC news, It’s all PC and Self serving BS.
Time to get back to Honest and non biased news or time to scrap the gravy train that runs on Tax Payers Money making Jobs for the boys and Millionaires out of Pundits and cooks.
And another thing, Sack the whole bleeding Weather department as they are unfit for purpose.
Agree with some of that.
I do watch BBC news out of habit, but I cross reference with other sources to form a view, even the Guardian, as the BBC news, ch4, both have an agenda in my view which has been exposed from within before. Have a read of the Noble Liar for starters. So I watch and note the bias with every episode.
More widely, the BBC remains for me a valuable institution, and I think they make some very good programs, and some cheap entertainment for the masses ones too.
One has the liberty of turning them off.
My comment concerned the news department only.
Cooks, we love MasterChef, so no issues there.
Weather? Again ours are probably much better than you’ll find elsewhere in the world, and yes they can get it wrong. Such is weather, unpredictable!
Cooks, any TV Chef seems to be minted with the greatest collection of super cars. I’m just jealous.
Weather, when the forecast says no rain and it’s pissing down. I’m a Biker, It matters.
BBC News, mostly concerned with minorities, WOKE and Vegan issues. Just my interpretation.
BBC valud Institution, just clinging on now. I’m older than you.
Cheap entertainment for the masses. Brain dead Sheeple.
Pretty much my take on the BBC.