Posted on 02 Nov 2015
The UK Business Secretary admitted that it has no solutions to the complex challenges faced by the global steel industry. However, he expressed UK government’s willingness to co-operate with the EU and other European trade bodies to revitalize the steel industry in the region. According to him, steel industry across the Europe, not only in the UK, faces unprecedented challenges, both in terms of plunging prices and dumping of cheap products from other steel producing regions. Steel must be on the top of EU agenda, observed Javid.
Meantime, European Steel Association (EUROFER) warned that the implementation of the proposed Emissions Trading System (ETS) would harm the region’s steel sector growth. The proposed legislation could threaten nearly 330,000 jobs, noted Axel Eggert, Director General, EUROFER. According to projections, ETS implementation could result in €34 billion of carbon costs for the steel industry during the initial ten years from its implementation. The Association has called for several modifications to the regulatory framework which could guarantee better performance.
The UK Business Secretary is also believed to have had talks with Margrethe Vestager, Competition Commissioner on speeding up the approval for the much awaited UK’s Energy Intensive Industries compensation scheme. Under the scheme, businesses most at risk of carbon leakage will have to be compensated by the government, in order to help offset the cost of energy and climate change policies.
