Pretty much the end of steelmaking in the UK

[threaded]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7850596.stm

We bloody invented the process.

Didn't know we were related. He was one of my ancestors too. Small world hey!

[bogeyman]

Didn't know we were related. He was one of my ancestors too. Small world hey!

Well hello mister Bessemer!

[EternalOptimist]

They will close these steelworks, I guarantee it.

A steel plant is not something you can easily mothball.

Tata have been stripping these plants of anything useful since they bought out Corus.

IIRC, it take years to cool down, re-line then fire up a single furnace

[sasguru]

Tata have been stripping these plants of anything useful since they bought out Corus.

Bloody reverse colonialists, eh?

[Mich the Tester]

What do we make anymore that anyone would want?

I want more Lemon Curd.

Otherwise, I’d recommend reading an article from the Harvard business review in the beginning of the 80s where two professors outlined the reasons for the decline of American manufacturing and heavy industry in an article called ‘Managing our way to Economic Decline’. A lot of what they say applies just as well to British industry, and frighteningly, to the service businesses of today.

Unfortunately the whole article isn’t freely available on t’internet, but there are a few summaries.

http://arunsmusings.blogspot.com/200...c-decline.html

A few choice excerpts;

‘managements' short-term, control oriented mentality has biased investments towards imitative rather than innovative product designs’

‘pseudoprofessionals. These are people who have no special expertise in any particular industry or technology, but run the company using financial controls, portfolio concepts and a market-driven, follow-the-leader strategy’

[TimberWolf]

First into the Industrial Revolution and first out.

Not surprising really. We had vast amounts of coal, used it up, and now have little left to show for it except a boomed population. Still, a major breakthrough in solar or nuclear technology could change things and we should be paying guys in those fields £millions/year instead of their antitheses in the form of the likes of (d)Ross.

[Mich the Tester]

Not surprising really. We had vast amounts of coal, used it up, and now have little left to show for it except a boomed population. Still, a major breakthrough in solar or nuclear technology could change things and we should be paying guys in those fields £millions/year instead of their antitheses in the form of the likes of (d)Ross.

I've always been a strong supporter of seven figure salaries for techies. Just seems logical to me.

[bogeyman]

IIRC, it take years to cool down, re-line then fire up a single furnace

No, just about 6-8 weeks for a modern blast furnace, but currently it costs more than it's worth with the margins these steel producers are operating with.

I think they would probably just run the plant into the ground and then write it off.

[DimPrawn]

Same goes for the pottery industry in this country.

Try finding a decent pair of jugs now and your looking at a foreign import.

[threaded]

They will close these steelworks, I guarantee it.

A steel plant is not something you can easily mothball.

Tata have been stripping these plants of anything useful since they bought out Corus.

What does it matter? The Labour government stole them from the family years ago, it was only a question of time before they finally ran them into the ground. Recon they'll be celebrating on a job well done soonish: marches with double-speak banners 'Save our Steel'. LOL

They'll put a Tescos up on the site, and aclaim the wonders of their job creation strategy!