27 July 2022
It has been clear for over a decade that Port Talbot’s blast furnaces must close due to global overcapacity. Meanwhile, it is a certainty that global capacity for electric arc furnace steel recycling will treble. All steel made in the past is returned for recycling, on average 35-40 years after it was first made. The UK discards around 10mn tonnes of scrap steel each year. This will soon be a more valuable commodity than iron ore or coking coal, yet we currently export five-sixths of it, at low cost.