Commenting on the current steel crisis in the UK, Liberty House chief executive officer Sanjeev Gupta indicated that 80 percent of the 21 million mt of steel the country consumes every year comes from abroad. “If we can find a way to make steel profitably in the UK, we can not only preserve and increase the number of jobs in the steel industry itself but we can develop a whole host of high-value sectors that feed off this most versatile of metals,” Mr. Gupta said.
The Liberty House CEO said that he believes the amount of steel produced domestically in the UK could be doubled, regaining many manufacturing industries which have been lost over the years and this could be done in a green and sustainable way. Mr. Gupta went on: “Crucially we need to start capturing and recycling the mountain of used steel emerging beneath our feet. We need to get a proper balance between the amount of brand new steel we make in blast furnaces - currently at uncompetitive prices using imported coal and iron ore - and the amount of scrap we melt in modern electric arc furnaces for recycling and upcycling into advanced products.”
Mr. Gupta stated that the UK government is now starting to address the issue of high industrial energy prices, adding that the UK steel industry should focus on green energy in the longer term, making steel production both competitive and environmentally sustainable.
“This is what we at Liberty call the ‘GREENSTEEL’ path to restoring the UK steel industry; a strong end-to-end supply chain containing a healthy balance between recycled and new liquid steel, and an integrated network of steel-related industries, each adding value along the way. Over time the balance would tip more strongly towards recycled steel melted in arc furnaces and short-term energy price reform would lead on to the development of a transformed industry powered by low-cost green energy,” Sanjeev Gupta concluded.