British Minister supported the idea of ​​reducing electricity tariffs for metallurgists

Edwina Kharg, the Minister of Economy of the Welsh Government, supported the urgent need for government action to address the high energy costs of metallurgical companies. This opinion was expressed by Kharg during a summit held on Friday with the participation of members of the British Cabinet, heads of metallurgical companies and trade unions.

The Welsh government, along with the region's steel industry leaders, has repeatedly called on David Cameron's cabinet to do more to curb rising energy prices that threaten job losses, Harg said.

The summit was held in Sheffield to explore opportunities for joint action by the UK public and private sector in addressing the crisis that erupted in early October in the country's steel industry.

Let us remind you that since the end of September more than 2,000 people have been dismissed from the metallurgical enterprises of Great Britain. The last "wake-up call" for unions and some members of the UK government was the announcement by Tata Steel about the dismissal of another 1,200 workers from the Scunthorpe plant and the possible mothballing of its metallurgical facilities.

The British authorities are frightened by the prospect of a repeat of the situation with the Redcar plant in Teesside, which was stopped by the Thai company SSI and declared bankrupt. As a result, 1,700 people were outside the gates within a week, and the equipment of the enterprise could be sold as scrap metal to fulfill obligations to employees.

Meanwhile, there are people in the UK government who see the elimination of the steel industry as a blessing for the state. Their arguments are based on the fact that England is becoming a high-tech region that will sell intelligent products and services to the world, and smelting steel is a dirty business for emerging markets.

Some experts agree with them. Today, Forbes published an article by Tim Vorstal, in which the author stated that the real reason for the closure of the Redcar plant in Teesside was precisely the production of steel in a blast furnace. According to him, blast-furnace steel production is a Stone Age technology and it will go to history books as well as the production of stone axes and knives.

“In fact, the closure of Redcar was the goal of UK government policy to shut down blast furnace steel production as such,” the expert explained.