Rotherham Steel Industry Faces Nationalisation as Government Acts to Protect Sector

The UK steel industry is bracing for another grand intervention, with increasing talk that the government will soon nationalise the speciality steel furnaces in Rotherham—after taking control of British Steel's Scunthorpe works in a recent move. Nationalisation is now the most likely option, industry executives and officials say, as Liberty Steel's Rotherham and Sheffield facilities face insolvency and continued financial woes.

 

The state, while still seeking a commercial partner, has made it clear that job protection and defense of the nation's industrial base are its main priorities. Emergency legislation passed for the Scunthorpe plant has already given ministers far-reaching powers to manage operations, maintain blast furnaces, and to achieve continuity of steelmaking. With up to £2.5 billion of support available to steel making, Rotherham's electric arc furnaces, which are crucial to aerospace and automotive sectors, are deemed too strategic to fail.

 

Analysts warn that, as with Scunthorpe, the government's move is driven by a mixture of industrial heritage, national security, and economic necessity, and that nationalisation is increasingly viewed as inevitable.

 

Source: BBC, Independent, Ed Conway, Hansard