Heavy Metal

29 March 2016 By Andy Critchlow

The Port Talbot plant probably can’t survive in a world flooded with cheap Chinese steel. Yet it has hung on stubbornly long. Across markets like iron, oil and steel, the idea that price wars drive high-cost suppliers to the wall is proving more complicated than once thought.

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Managers from the Port Talbot steel works in Wales were due to discuss a rescue plan with owners Tata Steel on March 29. The plant is the largest in the UK but it has struggled to cope with a global decline in steel prices and overproduction from lower-cost foundries in China.

Tata announced cost savings and job losses across its UK steel plants on Jan. 18, including plans to lay off 750 workers at Port Talbot. The company’s European Chief Executive Karl Koehler warned that the region’s entire steel industry was threatened unless more was done in response to counter dumping.

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