Time to show some Steel

This column was published in the Llanelli Star on March 16th 2016
"We won't have the luxury of talking about steel because there won't be steel" Welsh Economy Minister Edwina Hart told AMs last week.

 “We've got to have an industry in Europe that produces for Europe," she said, as concern grows that the Conservatives in Westminster are failing to lead action against China for ‘dumping’ its cheap steel on the European markets. 

The Chinese have too much steel on their hands now that their economy is slowing down. 

They’re trying to sell it at cut price rates we can’t compete with. Last September for example, China exported 11.5 million tonnes of cut-price steel in one month  - that is almost as much steel as the UK produces in a whole year.

If left unchecked this discounting could wipe out the steel industry in the UK.   

The USA have just imposed a new 266% tax on on Chinese coiled steel coming into America, while the same steel faces tariffs of just 16% when imported into the EU.But UK Ministers, who want to cosy up to the Chinese Government, are not stepping in to protect our steel industry from this unfair competition

UK Steel, the body representing the UK steel industry has told AMs last week that UK ministers were among the "ringleaders" blocking higher tariffs on Chinese steel. UK Steel policy chief Dominic King said Ministers are effectively saying to Chinese producers "please dump here".

When Chinese President Xi’s came to the UK on state visit at the end of last year the only person to confront him about the effect of this so-called ‘dumping of steel was Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

This inaction by the Tories has direct consequences for jobs in Llanelli. We urgently need David Cameron to show the same level of support he’s given to bankers to our manufacturing base.


Lee Waters is Welsh Labour’s Assembly candidate for Llanelli

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dysgu gwersi

Image
A note to members of the Llanelli constituency Labour Party There has been a big disagreement within Welsh Labour. There has not been a ‘witch-hunt’ against Vaughan Gething, but there has been a genuine conflict of values. Now there is an appetite to quickly move on, but I think there’s a real danger that in shutting down discussion we will neither understand nor learn the lessons of what has happened.  As uncomfortable as it will be I think we need proper debate about the future direction of Welsh Labour. Circling the wagons around a ‘unity candidate’ may bring some short-term relief, but it will do nothing to address the fundamental need to renew in office. I’ve not given any interview and don’t intent to, but as a way of making sense of it all I’ve written this assessment which looks at what should happen now and an analysis of how we got to this position.  These are offered in the spirit of honest debate and not point-scoring. Edrych ymlaen We’re in a pickle. After 25 year...
Read more

Transport for Wales 2.0

Image
Speech to Transport for Wales senior management at Llys Cadwyn, TfW HQ, in Pontypridd on 6th February 2024 Diolch am y croeso a y cyfle. James Price and I meet regularly, and sometimes it feels like we’re in charge. But it really is a privilege to be in the same room as the people who actually do run transport in Wales. And it’s so nice to see people together. I’m still adjusting to meeting people in the flesh who I’m used to seeing online; I still can’t believe how short everyone is when I meet them! Apart from the ones I already knew were short, obviously (you know who you are). The worst thing about those mass Teams calls is that I can’t see people’s reactions to what I’m saying – to confirm that they are drifting off.  So at least I’ll know for sure today that I am boring you – the people in the room at least. It won’t stop me, but it gets rid of the uncertainty. I know we’ve priced-in that politicians' speeches will be insincere, but I really do mean what I say. And I ...
Read more

Don't forget the wiring

Image
The Wales Transport Strategy published in 2021 put modal shift at the heart of our policies. For the first time, we’ve set a target on increasing the number of trips made by sustainable modes of transport from 32% to 45% by 2040. Grand declarations are important to signal system change. However, as we've seen in the past, transport strategies often say all the right things in the narrative but the delivery mechanisms are programmed to deliver business-as-usual. In spite of the new targets the bible for highway engineers, the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges , still prioritises traffic flow; the bible for economists and finance officials, the UK Treasury Green Book, still insists on monetising notional journey time savings when it comes to transport investments; rather than reduce speeds to save lives, orthodoxy suggests we upgrade highway design to increase capacity and allow faster speeds under the guise of road safety.  Unless the system wiring is reconfigured to delive...
Read more