Yesterday UK Steel launched their new ‘Closing The Gap’ report on the challenges posed to our steel industry by high energy costs. It simply cannot be right that UK steel producers pay 62% more than steelmakers in Germany and 80% more than France. Over the past four years, the sector has paid over £200m more than if we had German level prices. These costs are huge barrier to competitiveness for the industry.

At the launch I joined a panel to discuss the issue with Community Union’s Roy Rickhuss, Gareth Stace from UK Steel and Chris Hagg from Celsa Steel UK.

🗒️ The full report is available to read online here.

📰 You can also read my comments on the issue of sky-high industrial energy costs in today’s Daily Mirror here.