We will never need more capacity for making steel from iron ore than we have today.
- Julian Allwood
The report, by Professor Julian Allwood, argues that in order to survive, the UK steel industry needs to refocus itself on steel recycling and on producing products for end users. He argues that instead of viewing Tata Steel’s UK exit as a catastrophe, it can instead be viewed as an opportunity.
Allwood’s report, A bright future for UK steel: A strategy for innovation and leadership through up-cycling and integration, uses evidence gathered from over six years of applied research by 15 researchers, funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and industrial partners spanning the global steel supply chain.
“Tata Steel is pulling out of the UK, for good reason, and there are few if any willing buyers,” said Allwood, from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering. “Despite the sale of the Scunthorpe plant announced earlier this week, the UK steel industry is in grave jeopardy, and it appears that UK taxpayers must either subsidise a purchase, or accept closure and job losses.
“However, we believe that there is a third option, which would allow a transformation of the UK’s steel industry.”
Instead of producing new steel, one option for the UK steel industry is to refocus itself toward recycling steel rather than producing it from scratch. The global market for steel recycling is projected to grow at least three-fold in the next 30 years, but despite the fact that more than 90% of steel is recycled, the processes by which recycling happens are out of date. The quality of recycled steel is generally low, due to poor control of its composition.
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Image: Blast furnace #5, Port Talbot Steelworks
Credit: Public domain
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge
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