tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/steel-industry-33089/articlesSteel industry – The Conversation2024-01-24T17:18:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2217972024-01-24T17:18:17Z2024-01-24T17:18:17ZWhat a fair deal for ex-steelworkers would look like as the industry decarbonises<p>Plans to <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68022901">cut almost 3,000 jobs</a> at the UK’s largest steelworks, Tata Steel in Port Talbot, south Wales, mark another devastating chapter in a long history of deindustrialisation.</p>
<p>The closure of steel plants in Ravenscraig, Ebbw Vale and Redcar will be haunting the steelworkers in Port Talbot, serving as a reminder of what is at stake. Although this so-called “restructuring” has sadly become the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0038038519836850">norm</a>, former workers at other large steelworks are still scarred by loss of income, identity and skills in the <a href="https://www.vr.se/swecris?q=*&funding_organizations_sv=Forte&view=cards&sort=start_desc#/project/2018-00760_Forte">post-redundancy transition</a>.</p>
<p>Tata has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68034598">expressed regret</a> at the hand it has dealt workers. There are <a href="https://www.tatasteeleurope.com/corporate/news/tata-steel-announces-next-steps-towards-green-steelmaking-in-uk">modest signs</a> it will work with trade unions and governments on what have been described as “transition boards”. This is to be backed by a £130 million support package that could arguably ensure the restructuring is conducted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09585192.2021.1958248">responsibly</a>. Also, the intimacy between the steelworks and the local community mean Tata is compelled to provide support.</p>
<p>The steelworks is Port Talbot’s largest private sector employer. Workers, families, residents and local businesses depend on the steelworks to sustain their livelihoods and the fortunes of the town. </p>
<p>What’s more, according to <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/maps/choropleth/population/household-deprivation/hh-deprivation/household-is-deprived-in-one-dimension?lad=W06000012">ONS data</a> Port Talbot is one of the most deprived places in the UK, and a focus of the government’s “levelling up” agenda. Any job losses will reverberate throughout the region and their impact will be reinforced by wider inequalities across south Wales.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Large industrial buildings" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=337&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/571201/original/file-20240124-27-xju6l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The huge steelworks dominates the town of Port Talbot.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leighton Collins / shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The move by Tata is because of environmental pressures to decarbonise steel production, primarily from coal-powered blast furnaces like those in Port Talbot. Instead, Tata will invest in an electric arc furnace that recycles scrap steel through an electrification process before being cast into steel products. </p>
<p>Despite its emissions, steel is considered one of six “<a href="https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/browse-our-areas-of-investment-and-support/transforming-foundation-industries/">foundation industries</a>” as it remains essential for “green” products such as wind turbines, electric vehicles and low carbon homes.</p>
<h2>Jobs v environment</h2>
<p>Port Talbot therefore signifies another fateful episode in the tension between saving jobs versus saving the environment. This heightened vulnerability of the steel industry to environmental pressures brings the notion of a “<a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/just-transition-70759">just transition</a>” into sharp relief. </p>
<p>With its origins in the international trade union movement, a just transition focuses on ensuring that workers and communities most affected by the shift to a greener economy do not end up worse off. This can be achieved through dialogue between governments, companies, workers and community groups, and social interventions aimed at protecting jobs for the future.</p>
<p>Planning for such transitions is not new to the industry. At Tata Steel Europe in the Netherlands, unions and management recently concluded an <a href="https://www.unie.nl/en/jouw-cao-en-branche/tata-steel-sociaal-contract-groen-staal-akkoord-op-hoofdlijnen">agreement</a> known as the “Green Steel Social Contract”. The agreement maps out a just transition pathway that involves measures such as employment guarantees, monetary incentives related to retention and individual tailor-made employability plans. </p>
<p>Similarly, Swedish steelmaker SSAB has been working with trade union IF Metall for a number of years over the switch to greener steel production while securing jobs in the process. Although there are different national contexts, they demonstrate what at least might be possible.</p>
<h2>What next for steelworkers</h2>
<p>Part of the negotiations between stakeholders in a just transition process is identifying the types of education, training and qualifications that steelworkers might need to retrain. For example, although production through electric arc furnaces is less labour-intensive, more jobs may emerge in the manufacture of end products for which steelworkers would be well suited.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/system/files/a_bright_future_for_uk_steel_2.pdf">Scrap steel</a> can create blooms, billets and rods for use in construction and the production of industrial equipment. Other possibilities lie in learning new digital skills to help with robot-assisted production in the steel sector.</p>
<p>A huge caveat to retraining prospects for steelworkers is the extent of funding along with whether a meaningful industrial strategy reflects the regional labour market. Government intervention here is necessary to make sure the new skills match the available jobs. Further still, retraining raises questions over whether new jobs are of a similar quality, income and status, or if workers can relocate to new areas for work. </p>
<p><a href="https://community-tu.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Just-Transition-Report.pdf">Community union</a> found that following the closure of a large steel plant in Redcar, north-east England, those earning £30,000 a year dropped from 80% pre-closure to 35% post-closure, and 18% took two years to find a job post-redundancy. These constraints cannot be taken for granted, as they further compound the consequences of job losses for steelworkers.</p>
<p>A just transition should champion the needs of workers and communities while also recognising the needs of regional economies. This is where the steel unions come into play as they are strongly embedded in the workforce and local community. And perhaps regrettably, episodic restructuring has meant unions are well versed in mitigating its effects. </p>
<p>An alternative transition plan proposed by <a href="https://community-tu.org/statement-community-and-gmb-tata-steel-port-talbot/#d54f9c7a">unions</a> was already rejected by Tata. Whatever its reasons, Tata cannot deny the expertise and insights the unions have of the lives of workers and the south Wales region. If Tata seeks a transition that is just and socially acceptable to workers and communities, then it has no choice but to heed the legitimacy of the unions. For steelworkers in Port Talbot, “hope dies last”.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris McLachlan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tata Steel layoffs in Port Talbot reveal the tension between saving jobs and saving the environment.Chris McLachlan, Senior Lecturer in Human Resource Management, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2147562023-12-01T17:52:49Z2023-12-01T17:52:49ZElectric arc furnaces: the technology poised to make British steelmaking more sustainable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556676/original/file-20231030-19-zblfpc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=50%2C0%2C5615%2C3741&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Steel production in an electric arc furnace.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/steel-production-electric-furnace-780620236">Norenko Andrey/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In a move to embrace sustainable steelmaking, British Steel has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/nov/06/british-steel-scunthorpe-furnaces-jobs">unveiled</a> a £1.25 billion plan to replace two blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/electric-arc-furnace-process">electric arc furnaces</a>. This follows the UK government’s <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/welsh-steels-future-secured-as-uk-government-and-tata-steel-announce-port-talbot-green-transition-proposal">commitment</a> in September to <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/live-updates-thousands-job-losses-27716778">invest</a> up to £500 million towards an electric arc furnace at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant in south Wales.</p>
<p>This method of steelmaking can use up to 100% scrap steel as its raw material, resulting in a significant reduction in carbon emissions. It is the future of steelmaking. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1721521512086196450"}"></div></p>
<p>Steel is an incredible material and for good reason. It’s the world’s most commonly used metal because it’s strong, durable and recyclable, making it the perfect material for everything from skyscrapers to electric vehicles and solar panels. More than <a href="https://worldsteel.org/steel-topics/statistics/annual-production-steel-data/?ind=P1_crude_steel_total_pub/WORLD_ALL/GBR">1.8 billion tonnes</a> of crude steel were produced globally last year. That number is only expected to grow as the world transitions to a more sustainable future.</p>
<p>The UK uses around 12 million tonnes of steel each year. And in 2022, it produced just under 6 million tonnes, contributing to around <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CDP-2023-0016/CDP-2023-0016.pdf">2.4%</a> of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions.</p>
<h2>Electric arc furnaces</h2>
<p>There are <a href="https://www.eurofer.eu/about-steel/learn-about-steel/what-is-steel-and-how-is-steel-made">two main</a> steel production methods. Currently, Port Talbot and Scunthorpe use the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace method. The purpose of the blast furnace is to separate iron ore extracted from the ground into its component parts: iron and oxygen. </p>
<p>A form of carbon, normally coal, combines with the oxygen in the iron ore. The outputs of this process are iron and carbon dioxide. The basic oxygen furnace is then used to convert the iron into steel. </p>
<p>As a global average, this method of steelmaking emits around <a href="https://worldsteel.org/wp-content/uploads/Sustainability-Indicators-2022-report.pdf">2.32 tonnes</a> of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced. </p>
<p>An electric arc furnace works by generating a high-temperature arc between graphite electrodes, using electricity as the energy source. This arc is then used to melt metal inside a chamber. </p>
<p>Using this method, up to 100% scrap steel can be used as the raw material, while the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace method can only use a maximum of <a href="https://worldsteel.org/steel-topics/raw-materials/">30% scrap</a>. A switch to the electric arc furnace method could reduce emissions to 0.67 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced when using 100% scrap steel.</p>
<p>In the future, it is also possible the electricity needed for electric arc furnace processes could come from 100% renewable sources, whereas a form of carbon will always be needed to reduce iron ore when using the blast furnace method.</p>
<h2>Recycled steel</h2>
<p>Steel is the most recycled material in the <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-industry-facts/steel-core-green-economy/">world</a>, and so scrap steel is quickly becoming a crucial raw material. In 2021, the global steel industry recycled around 680 million tonnes of scrap steel. This equates to <a href="https://worldsteel.org/about-steel/steel-facts?fact=53">savings</a> of almost 1 billion tonnes of CO₂ emissions, compared to using virgin steel production. </p>
<p>In 2021, more than <a href="https://www.bir.org/images/BIR-pdf/Ferrous_report_2017-2021_lr.pdf">8.2 million tonnes</a> of steel scrap was exported from the UK. If collected and sorted more carefully, using this material domestically could provide both environmental and economic value, by helping to meet growing national demand for steel.</p>
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<img alt="A large steelworks lit up at night." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6015%2C3357&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556639/original/file-20231030-27-aeouwv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Tata Steel plant in Port Talbot, south Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/port-talbot-wales-uk-industrial-landscape-1264187401">Christopher Willans/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>We know that steel produced with an electric arc furnace can have different properties to blast furnace produced material. A large factor in this is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03019233.2020.1805276">quality of scrap steel</a> used in the electric arc furnace – if the scrap steel quality is low, then so will the quality of the output.</p>
<p>With that in mind, there is a need for research, innovation and skills development to ensure this transition to lower-carbon steelmaking methods is successful. </p>
<p>Finding and sorting the right types of scrap material, confirming material properties and increasing supply chain understanding of electric arc furnace steelmaking are all necessary for a wide range of steel products to continue to be made in the UK.</p>
<h2>Sustainable steelmaking</h2>
<p>There is a race across Europe to secure investment for sustainable steelmaking technologies. <a href="https://www.hybritdevelopment.se/en/">Hybrit</a> is a fossil-free steel project in Sweden between several major steel producers and is already underway. </p>
<p>This follows plans to invest almost <a href="https://energypost.eu/hybrit-project-sweden-goes-for-zero-carbon-steel/">€40 billion</a> (almost £35 billion) in low-emission steelmaking technologies over the next 20 years. Also in Sweden, the company H2 Green Steel has secured <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/swedens-h2-green-steel-gains-support-345-bln-debt-funding-fossil-fuel-free-plant-2022-10-24/">€3.5 billion</a> (£3 billion) to build a hydrogen-powered steel plant.</p>
<p>In July 2023, the German government announced €2 billion (£1.7 billion) of <a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/eu-commission-oks-e2-billion-state-aid-for-ailing-german-steel-sector/">support</a> for Thyssenkrupp, the steel multinational. And that was on top of the €3 billion (£2.6 billion) it had previously announced to support the country’s industrial green transition. A</p>
<p>ArcelorMittal, the second largest steel producer in the world, has also announced green investment in their plants in <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3404">Belgium</a> and <a href="https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/climate-action/decarbonisation-investment-plans/spain-a-1-billion-investment-to-halve-our-carbon-emissions-and-create-the-world-s-first-full-scale-zero-carbon-emissions-steel-plant">Spain</a>, totalling more than €1.2 billion (£1.5 billion).</p>
<p>While the UK government has <a href="https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/the-uk-should-lead-on-a-green-industrial-strategy-not-roll-back/">no published</a> industrial strategy, other organisations have produced roadmaps for decarbonised steelmaking in the UK. </p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.energy-transitions.org/new-report-breakthrough-steel-investment/">report</a> by the Energy Transitions Commission, a global coalition of energy leaders committed to net-zero emissions, outlined plans for investing in low-emission steelmaking in early 2023. With the right level of government and private sector investment, the UK could become a world leader in green steelmaking – but only it acts now.</p>
<p>As global temperatures continue to rise and the climate emergency deepens, the need for a decarbonised steel industry is greater than ever. Lower carbon methods of steel production are the future of the industry both in the UK and around the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214756/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Becky Waldram receives funding from EPSRC, as part of the SUSTAIN Hub (Strategic University Steel Technology and Innovation Network). She is member of the Institute of Materials, Minerals & Mining. </span></em></p>Electric arc furnaces can use up to 100% scrap steel as its raw material, resulting in a significant reduction in emissions.Becky Waldram, Materials Scientist and SUSTAIN Impact & Engagement Manager, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1924682022-10-28T15:26:34Z2022-10-28T15:26:34ZWhat long-term economic stagnation means for climate change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491438/original/file-20221024-5833-nxah0r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4287%2C2413&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">maradon 333 / shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The financial shock the UK has recently suffered is of course bad for green investment. The Rishi Sunak-led government is also likely to use this crisis to push for <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-economy-austerity-cuts-b2209896.html">further public spending cuts</a> that will rule out a truly transformative green agenda.</p>
<p>However, in my <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10245294221120986">recent academic paper</a> I argue that the economic obstacles to effective decarbonisation are more deeply entrenched than that. We can’t simply blame a bad government budget or even the global market turmoil sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.</p>
<p>Instead, the global economy has been trapped in a state of relative stagnation in rates of growth, productivity, investment and profitability since at least the 2008 financial crisis, with some scholars even dating the onset of the malaise to the 1970s. This so-called <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fandd/issues/2020/03/larry-summers-on-secular-stagnation">secular stagnation</a> is a global trend, but the UK has performed <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/13691481211044638">particularly poorly</a>.</p>
<p>This represents a colossal problem for mainstream visions of decarbonisation. Most states, business groups and international organisations believe it must be driven by a tremendous global boom in private investment in renewable energy and sustainable infrastructure – estimates range from <a href="https://irena.org/newsroom/pressreleases/2021/Jun/IRENAs-World-Energy-Transitions-Outlook-Re-Writes-Energy-Narrative-for-a-Net-Zero-World">US$4.4 trillion</a> a year until 2050 up to <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/sustainability/our-insights/the-economic-transformation-what-would-change-in-the-net-zero-transition">$9.2 trillion</a> a year.</p>
<p>In this view, the role of states is to shepherd investors away from “brown” fossil fuel assets and towards green ones. The problem with this “green growth” vision is that for decades it has proven very difficult for states to generate any global, sustained boom in private investment – whether green or brown.</p>
<p>There is no consensus on the causes of this long-term stagnation, with different scholars pointing to <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.p20151102">slowing population growth</a>, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08911916.2017.1407742">anti-labour policy agendas</a>, or <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/10245294211044314">industrial overproduction</a>. Yet what is clear is that stagnation acts as a fundamental drag on efforts to green the world economy. A few examples can illustrate this.</p>
<h2>Steel and solar</h2>
<p>The steel industry is a key driver of climate change and is responsible for around <a href="https://cen.acs.org/environment/green-chemistry/steel-hydrogen-low-co2-startups/99/i22">7% to 9% of global carbon emissions</a>. Currently, many steel plants burn coke to heat their blast furnaces, releasing carbon dioxide in the process. There are several ways to <a href="https://theconversation.com/steel-is-vital-to-the-green-transition-heres-how-to-scrub-out-the-industrys-emissions-154768">green this process</a>, with perhaps the most plausible involving the use of green hydrogen and electric arc furnaces.</p>
<p>The problem is that these green solutions are expensive, in an industry that is already wracked by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/992ad270-b4d3-11e7-aa26-bb002965bce8">overproduction</a> and weak profitability. Reorganising production and retooling factories worldwide would require firms to make massive investments, but glutted steel markets mean that such investments would be unlikely to yield high returns. The stagnant state of the industry therefore militates against its rapid decarbonisation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Steel tubes on construction site" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/489821/original/file-20221014-27-1tuhb7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Most of the world’s steel is made in China, and China makes more than it can sell.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">chinahbzyg / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At first glance, solar power looks like the polar opposite of an old, heavy industry like steel. The production of solar panels is literally a <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/sunriseindustry.asp">sunrise industry</a>: from the early 2000s, when generous renewable energy subsidies were introduced in Europe, investment has flooded in and generated a boom.</p>
<p>And yet there are signs that this industry too is increasingly hampered by chronic overcapacity and vanishing profitability. As production has become increasingly concentrated in China, where it is most cost-effective, the industry has been transformed by automation and massive economies of scale. It now resembles a typical commodities business with a high output of standardised products, and low prices and profits. As <a href="https://www.economist.com/technology-quarterly/2021/01/07/how-governments-spurred-the-rise-of-solar-power">The Economist</a> recently labelled the industry: “Good for the planet – but hardly a gold mine”. Many solar firms have gone bankrupt or simply abandoned the sector.</p>
<p>There has yet to be a grinding slowdown in solar panel production in response to these weak profits, partly due to <a href="https://chinadialogue.net/en/digest/china-special-purpose-firms-to-tackle-unpaid-renewables-subsidies/">massive subsidies in China</a>. </p>
<h2>Democratising decarbonisation</h2>
<p>These dynamics can be found across many sectors that require urgent decarbonisation, from industry to energy to transport. For those who think climate change can only be resolved by markets and private investors, it’s an existential threat to their worldview. Yet the stagnation doesn’t actually show that decarbonisation is impossible, rather that it will be difficult to do so by capitalist means.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People in hi-vis stood on solar panels" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491660/original/file-20221025-23-e3t7a8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The solar industry could be collectively owned and democratically run.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ME Image / shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For this reason, it is important to take seriously <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3818-half-earth-socialism">radical visions of decarbonisation</a> that involve using collective ownership and democratic economic planning to rapidly expand renewable infrastructure. Faced with an unprecedented environmental catastrophe and the inertia of private markets, why should key industries like steel or solar be run according to the principle of profit maximisation instead of climate stability? </p>
<p>Run in a collective and democratic manner, the production of solar panels could be carefully managed to address a range of social concerns, from meeting carbon emissions goals to protecting communities where <a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/10/26/21/a-rare-form-of-quartz-is-key-to-xinjiangs-solar-boom-and-almost-all-of-it-is-in-the-us">quartz mining</a> is located to ensuring fair working practices in silicon factories. Deliberation between stakeholders would replace the blind imperative of money making.</p>
<p>While similar proposals can be found in some strands of <a href="https://viewpointmag.com/2019/05/16/plan-mood-battlefield-reflections-on-the-green-new-deal/">green new deal</a> and <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745342023/exploring-degrowth/">degrowth</a> thought, these measures remain marginal to the broader debate on decarbonisation. Such a radical departure from contemporary economic orthodoxy is unlikely to be adopted by governments unless they are pushed by powerful social movements. Building such movements is the challenge of our time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192468/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jack Copley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Decarbonisation is not impossible, but it will be difficult to achieve through capitalism.Jack Copley, Assistant Professor in International Political Economy, Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1931442022-10-28T09:29:12Z2022-10-28T09:29:12ZDead crustaceans washing up on England’s north-east coast may be victims of industrial revival<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491856/original/file-20221026-21-aorh0d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of dead and dying crustaceans were found along Teesside's coastlines last year.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pile-dead-crabs-high-quality-photo-2177645265">FlorianKunde/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Thousands of dead and dying crabs and lobsters <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/sep/03/we-just-want-the-truth-british-coastal-towns-fight-for-answers-over-mystery-sealife-deaths">washed up</a> along a 50km stretch of England’s north-east coast last autumn. Observers reported seeing the animals experience peculiar behaviours including convulsions, before suffering paralysis and death.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joint-agency-investigation-into-teesside-and-yorkshire-coast-crab-and-lobster-mortalities">initial investigation</a> conducted by the Department of Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, concluded that a harmful algal bloom was most likely responsible for the deaths. Autumnal phytoplankton blooms are a normal part of temperate marine ecosystems and can produce potent toxins that attack an animal’s central nervous system. But such blooms typically don’t lead to deaths on the scale seen.</p>
<p>The government’s explanation has been <a href="https://www.whitbylobsterhatchery.co.uk/storage/pdf/NEFC-MASS-MORTALITY-REPORT-TDJ-(MARCH-2022).pdf">contested</a> by local fishermen. They believe recent intensive dredging has released industrial toxins, including pyridine, from the sediment of the River Tees. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An aerial shot of an industrial area on the river tees, with a blue bridge in the foreground." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/491718/original/file-20221025-15224-fm2yzw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The legacy of Teesside’s industrial past can be seen today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/teesside-middlesbrough-transporter-bridge-showing-river-1220827276">Nigel Rusby/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As an industrial solvent, pyridine is used in a wide range of manufacturing processes. It is also a by-product of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/coking-coal">coking coal</a>, a crucial input for steel production. The Tees area was home to both steel and chemical industries and the discharge of <a href="http://www.environmentdata.org/archive/ealit:1385/OBJ/19001163.pdf">contaminated effluent</a> into the river and surrounding wetlands has been common practice, often with minimal or no treatment. </p>
<p>Attempts to understand what caused these deaths has set traditional coastal industries on a collision course with the region’s green growth aspirations. </p>
<p>I took part in efforts to determine what actually happened and whether pyridine could have caused the death of these crabs and lobsters. Using standard ecotoxicology methods, <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2022/09/pyridinecrabs/">my research</a> involved monitoring the behaviour, physiology and survival of the crustaceans in carefully controlled pyridine solutions. It became clear to me that pyridine may have played a major role in the death of these animals.</p>
<h2>The redevelopment of Teesside</h2>
<p>As one of the UK’s industrial heartlands, Teesside has been designated as a special economic zone, or <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/freeports#what-are-freeports">freeport</a>. The region will play a key role in the government’s <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1095544/Executive_Summary.pdf">Levelling Up</a> programme and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/clean-growth-strategy/clean-growth-strategy-executive-summary">Clean Growth Strategy</a>, including hosting the UK’s first <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tees-valley-hydrogen-hub-boosted-by-20-million-competition">hydrogen transport hub</a>. </p>
<p>To facilitate this, the region’s major sea port is undergoing <a href="https://www.teesworks.co.uk/the-development/masterplan">redevelopment</a>. Teesport’s shipping canal has been widened and deepened and the South Bank quay is being reconstructed. This required dredging. Taking place last autumn, almost <a href="https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/20199323.teesside-freeport-dredging-likely-take-place-year/">150,000 tonnes of sediment</a> has been displaced from the Tees estuary as part of the project.</p>
<p>The onset of the marine deaths coincided with this dredging campaign. This prompted the Environment Agency to undertake chemical analysis of the dead crabs. Pyridine levels recorded in the dead crabs were <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-investigation-into-the-deaths-of-crabs-and-lobster-in-the-north-east">substantially higher</a> than in those from outside the impacted area. But there was no existing toxicological data on the impact of pyridine on crabs and other large crustaceans. </p>
<p>My research concluded that pyridine is acutely toxic to crabs at concentrations well below those measured in the dead crabs. Even surviving crabs with very low pyridine doses behaved as if they were partially anaesthetised. A single droplet of pyridine per litre of seawater would be sufficient to kill half of the crab population exposed to it. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1575505208578568194"}"></div></p>
<p>Further analysis of biochemical markers showed major spikes in the production of <a href="https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/reactive-oxygen-species">reactive oxygen species</a> in the muscle tissue. This means that the animal’s muscle cells have experienced major stress, with the potential for damage to DNA, proteins and cell membranes, which could lead to cell death. </p>
<p>However, although pyridine was detected in the crabs examined by the government investigation, it was not detected in water samples. As a result, pyridine’s involvement in the deaths has been <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/update-on-investigation-into-the-deaths-of-crabs-and-lobster-in-the-north-east">dismissed</a> by the Environment Agency.</p>
<h2>Why has pyridine gone undetected?</h2>
<p>Pyridine is highly water soluble, very volatile and vulnerable to attack and destruction by oxygen. By the time water samples are taken, any pyridine could have been heavily diluted, lost to the atmosphere or destroyed. </p>
<p>Despite this, earlier this year researchers at the University of York still <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10mJtcqEsq_ozNFg83FipnkUY1XkPAlnU/view">measured</a> trace levels of pyridine in surface sediments both along the River Tees estuary and in the spoil grounds – the areas of the sea where dredged material is deposited. Given the volatility and instability of pyridine in the presence of oxygen, this implies a large pyridine reservoir deep in the sediment of the Tees that is percolating steadily up to the surface.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/nes/people/profile/miguelmorales-maqueda.html">My colleague</a> at Newcastle University has also undertaken a range of <a href="https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/latest/2022/09/pyridinecrabs/">computer simulations</a>. They show that this reservoir, once disturbed by dredging, could have released enough pyridine (among many other chemical contaminants) to account for mortalities on the scale and range of those recorded last autumn. The size of the pyridine reservoir still needs to be verified to ground the models in real-world data. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1575892995320303617"}"></div></p>
<p>Research has so far <a href="https://www.teesworks.co.uk/dredging?fbclid=IwAR0BKcT6dQ6_CPoQv524YYjCjWY_6jXJy9goHkNtaT3EVrCU4ce45jH2CtA#:%7E:text=On%201%20September%202022%2C%20Teesworks,well%20as%20future%20offshore%20developments">not prevented</a> additional dredging work for the new South Bank quay. But the sediment there <a href="https://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/20223245.tests-rule-dredged-material-near-new-tees-quay-must-not-disposed-sea/">contains high levels</a> of long-lasting pollutants, including heavy metals and various industrial chemicals. Should these sediments be dumped at sea, it could render England’s northeast coastline toxic for generations.</p>
<p>Teesside is undergoing rapid redevelopment to hasten the green industrial revolution. But in so doing we have been forced to reconcile with the region’s industrial legacy. By carrying out additional research we can better understand this issue and inform future action to prevent further damage to the marine ecosystem.</p>
<p><em>The headline of this article was amended to clarify that redevelopment to enable new industries, rather than green industrial processes themselves, is being blamed for the crustacean death.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193144/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gary Caldwell receives funding from The Fishmongers' Company and Ofwat. He is affiliated with the Green Party. </span></em></p>A mass die-off of crustaceans occurred on England’s north-east coast last autumn – the government’s explanation of the cause is unlikely to be true.Gary Caldwell, Senior Lecturer in Applied Biology, Newcastle UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1851642022-07-20T13:52:52Z2022-07-20T13:52:52ZNigeria hasn’t been able to produce steel: remanufacturing could be the solution<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/471457/original/file-20220628-14774-yzumkf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A steel plant.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Soeren Stache/picture alliance via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Nigeria has pumped more than US$8 billion into <a href="https://www.ajaokutasteel.com/site/pagef.php?cnt=Background%20of%20Organization">Ajaokuta Steel Company</a>, a project which began more than 40 years ago but has yet to produce one tonne of steel. </p>
<p>Several attempts have been made to bring the plant into production, but without success. It was built to 98% capacity by <a href="https://africa-executive.com/industry-outlook/russia-ukraine-war-stalls-resuscitation-of-nigerias-steel-plant/">the Soviet Union’s Tyazpromoexport</a>. But the lack of a rail line around the plant, and changes in political and operational management over the years, stymied completion. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.sunnewsonline.com/ajaokuta-steel-complex-another-failed-project/">Bilateral discussions in 2019</a> raised the possibility of Russian funding to resuscitate the steel plant, but the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis may have stalled any unofficial agreements.</p>
<p>Another problem for the plant is that some of its installed equipment may have been corroded and degraded by now.</p>
<p>Steel corrodes quickly in acidic environments. Consumer-grade steel and other iron-rich metals can develop iron oxide (or rust) after just four or five days of exposure. Corrosion of parts has been reported by a team of Nigerian and Ukrainian experts auditing the plant.</p>
<p>Still, the Nigerian federal government is now having yet another go. It is looking for a core investor that can get it <a href="https://sweetcrudereports.com/ajaokuta-steel-concession-asset-doesnt-mean-loss-ownership-govt/">running profitably</a> on a concession basis.</p>
<p>The cost of revamping the steel company was put at <a href="https://businessday.ng/news/article/fg-inaugurates-implementation-committee-for-ajaokuta-steel-resuscitation/">$1.4 billion</a> in 2020.</p>
<p>Instead of concessioning, we propose remanufacturing as a way of rescuing the plant. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.02.013">Remanufacturing</a>
is an industrial process whereby used or broken down products or components are restored to useful life. </p>
<p>Based on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13243-020-00086-8">our research</a>, we argue that remanufacturing’s economic, social and environmental advantages would solve the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited problem, make it competitive, meet contemporary demands of sustainable manufacturing and get it operational.</p>
<h2>Nigerian demand for steel</h2>
<p>Ajaokuta Steel was conceived in 1958 to meet Nigeria’s steel demand and launch Nigeria’s and West Africa’s manufacturing sector. The idea of a large-scale national steel production plant was based on the <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Steel_Development_and_Nigeria_s_Power_St.html?id=yzbUAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y">argument</a> that no country could talk about power status or the defence of national interests without its own steel industry. </p>
<p>Nigeria had a <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/nigeria-population">fast growing population</a>, with rising demand for manufactured goods. A number of manufacturing <a href="https://www.ide.go.jp/library/English/Publish/Reports/Vrf/pdf/418.pdf">industries</a> sprang up in the 1960s and the 1970s. Local demand for steel products was about 3.5 million tonnes a year between 1985 and 1995, the bulk of which could only be met through imports. </p>
<p>The manufacturing industry <a href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NV.IND.MANF.ZS?locations=NG">grew</a> from 9% in 1985 to 19% in 1995, encouraging government’s industrialisation drive. </p>
<h2>Challenges of concessioning</h2>
<p>As to how to meet that demand, a concessioning agreement for a steel plant presents some key challenges. </p>
<p>Although the concession may put the steel plant into the hands of a competent investor, it is only for 10 years. Then legal challenges may arise. The most recent operator, an Indian company called Global Steel Holdings Limited, had its 10-year concession agreement revoked by the Nigerian government and the matter ended in an <a href="https://dailytrust.com/despite-n4trn-investment-hope-dims-for-ajaokuta-steel-take-off">out-of-court settlement</a> in 2016.</p>
<p>A concession agreement with foreign operators cannot guarantee the involvement of local human resources, which Nigeria’s manufacturing desperately needs. </p>
<h2>Remanufacturing inputs</h2>
<p>A major challenge of reviving the Ajaokuta Steel plant is that much of its equipment is in a broken-down state. </p>
<p>We <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.02.013">argue that</a> remanufacturing could restore the equipment and get it working. It could also develop the local capacity for remanufacturing among Nigerians.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.02.013">Remanufacturing</a> is an industrial process of steps that make make a used product as good as new. It is a key <a href="https://ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/topics/circular-economy-introduction/overview">circular economy strategy</a>. </p>
<p>Broken-down parts are referred to as “cores”. They are passed through a number of standardised remanufacturing operations – inspection, sorting, disassembly, part reprocessing or refurbishment, reassembly and testing – to ensure they meet product standards. </p>
<p>The resulting output is a product which meets or exceeds the quality and performance <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.06.019">standards</a> of a newly manufactured product. </p>
<p>Studies suggest that remanufacturing can save up to <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/31631">50%</a> of the cost of a newly manufactured product, 60% of the energy, 70% of the material and <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/7/2427">80%</a> of the air pollutant emissions. </p>
<p>Remanufacturing is labour intensive, so it can support new jobs and other jobs in the supply chain, such as transporting cores from the original manufacturers or disposal site to the remanufacturer’s site. </p>
<p>The UN Environmental Programme has studied how remanufacturing can <a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/handle/20.500.11822/31631">retain value</a>, finding that it can reduce new material requirements by between 80% and 98% and increase skilled labour hours by up to 120%.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-71084-6_28">Nigeria does engage in some remanufacturing</a>, for example remanufacturing of <a href="https://tribuneonlineng.com/remanufacture-answer-to-nigerias-poor-healthcare-equipment-circular-economy-challenges/">medical devices</a>, but it is largely unorganised and driven by small, independent operators. </p>
<h2>What makes remanufacturing ideal for Ajaokuta</h2>
<p>For remanufacturing to happen, cores must be available. It must be possible to disassemble the cores. And there must be labour and access to customers. </p>
<p>We have assessed the challenge with the Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited and concluded that the barriers to remanufacturing can be overcome. </p>
<p>First, the broken-down components in the steel facility form the remanufacturing cores. </p>
<p>Most of these <a href="https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/politics/politics-after-gulping-dollar8-billion-in-39-years-ajaokuta-steel-factory-yet-to/6mp0mm8">mechanical components</a> (gearboxes, conveyor belts, cranes, blast furnace) can be disassembled and remanufactured.</p>
<p>The steel plant would serve as the original equipment manufacturer (and customer) and a supply route could be created using the road networks around <a href="https://punchng.com/ajaokuta-steel-experts-fault-fgs-plan-to-engage-british-firm/">Ajaokuta</a>, where the plant is located. A long term transport system should include a rail line to enable access to coal sites, for instance.</p>
<p>Nigeria has a <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1121317/age-distribution-of-population-in-nigeria-by-gender/">young population</a> which could provide the unskilled and skilled labour for remanufacturing. </p>
<h2>How to revive the steel plant</h2>
<p>For effective engineering management, we propose that <a href="https://africa-executive.com/industry-outlook/russia-ukraine-war-stalls-resuscitation-of-nigerias-steel-plant/">Tyazpromoexport</a>, the Russian company that first installed the Ajaokuta Steel plant, should work with Nigerian engineers to remanufacture the plant. The same company has successfully installed steel plants in <a href="http://tyazh.ru/en/projects/">Egypt, Algeria, Pakistan and India</a>.</p>
<p>We recommend the following broad steps:</p>
<ul>
<li>audit and assess worn-out and broken-down components</li>
<li>determine what can be remanufactured and at what cost</li>
<li>assess supporting stakeholders: independent remanufacturers, local routes, raw materials, facilities and labour</li>
<li>remanufacture identified parts</li>
<li>procure parts that can’t be remanufactured</li>
<li>install remanufactured and newly procured parts.</li>
</ul>
<p>We understand that Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited faces other challenges. They include the <a href="https://www.sunnewsonline.com/ajaokuta-steel-complex-another-failed-project/">politicisation</a> of the steel project, the <a href="https://guardian.ng/business-services/russia-ukraine-crisis-may-stall-resuscitation-of-ajaokuta-steel-plant/">Russia and Ukraine crisis</a> and the resulting geopolitical fall-out. </p>
<p>However, with over <a href="https://www.pulse.com.gh/bi/politics/politics-after-gulping-dollar8-billion-in-39-years-ajaokuta-steel-factory-yet-to/6mp0mm8">$8 billion</a> already invested, zero production and the corroding of the facility, there is a need to urgently revive the steel complex.</p>
<p>Remanufacturing presents an excellent opportunity to resuscitate it in a green, efficient and sustainable manner.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185164/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Ajaokuta steel plant stands unused after 40 years of construction and US$8 billion in investment.Okechukwu Okorie, Lecturer in Sustainable Manufacturing, University of ExeterNnaemeka Vincent Emodi, Research Fellow, The University of QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1714542021-12-15T14:49:20Z2021-12-15T14:49:20ZWhy carbon capture and storage is key to avoiding the worst effects of the climate emergency<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437357/original/file-20211213-19-16xy3hf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=28%2C57%2C3801%2C2467&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some industries, including steel and cement, emit carbon dioxide as part of the manufacturing process, and could benefit from carbon capture technologies. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(haglundc/flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>With the ongoing climate emergency and nations’ commitments to meet net-zero goals by 2050, there’s a heightened need to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions through whatever means possible. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) or carbon capture, utilization and sequestration (CCUS) are included in the <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter2_Low_Res.pdf">mitigation pathways</a> set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. </p>
<p>Despite this, carbon capture technologies have been labelled as a <a href="https://www.eco-business.com/news/carbon-capture-and-storage-wont-work-critics-say/">distraction from supporting renewable energies</a> and as extending the life of the oil and gas industry. But CCUS is a technology we cannot ignore. </p>
<p>CCUS are technologies that concentrate carbon dioxide from various streams, including combustion stacks, industrial processes and air, and either make use of the carbon dioxide or store it away. I research the technical development of carbon capture and previously oversaw the innovation around CCUS through <a href="https://cmcghg.com">Carbon Management Canada</a>, and have come to understand these technologies. </p>
<h2>The climate emergency is a complex problem</h2>
<p>Mitigation — finding ways to avoid the worst effects of the climate emergency — is a hugely complex problem. The problem itself is <a href="https://ethicsandclimate.org/tag/scientific-uncertainty-and-climate-change/">multifaceted, value-laden and carries uncertainty</a>. There is no silver bullet.</p>
<p><a href="http://homerdixon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Homer-Dixon-Oxford-Leadership-Journal-Manion-lecture.pdf">Complexity science</a> — a research approach that studies the interconnectedness of dynamic systems — tells us that in order to deal with complex problems, we need to apply non-linear thinking (draw connections from multiple concepts) and be adaptive and learn. Given the urgent need to decarbonize, we need renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels to produce electricity. But this will take time, and it is here, through this transition period, that CCUS can provide a much-needed technical solution. </p>
<p>We also need CCUS to decarbonize heavy industries such as cement and steel, which account for <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environmental-indicators/greenhouse-gas-emissions.html">about 10 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada</a>. Using renewable energy won’t affect their emissions much because carbon dioxide is released from the material used in the process, and not through combustion. CCUS technologies can be a strong part of the arsenal to accelerate the decarbonization of industries. </p>
<p>Time matters in the race to decarbonization. Fortunately, CCUS technologies are no longer a curiosity or experimental, but are ready or nearly ready to be exploited.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Three orange and white smokestacks in the background rise above a series of industrial buildings and corridors, with a few people in safety vests walking around." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437346/original/file-20211213-10093-v4cxrs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Visitors tour part of the Boundary Dam Power Station in Estevan, Sask., in 2014. The carbon capture and storage project is the world’s first commercial-scale operation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Michael Bell</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Canada has successfully demonstrated <a href="https://unfccc.int/climate-action/momentum-for-change/activity-database/boundary-dam-carbon-capture-and-storage-project">CCS at Boundary Dam</a>, a coal-fired power station near Estevan, Sask. The technology is based on a liquid that absorbs carbon dioxide from emissions and lets the other gases through, and then releases pure carbon dioxide into another stream, allowing it to be captured and stored.</p>
<p>Over the past seven years, this demonstration project — the world’s first — has provided much information about capturing carbon dioxide from a coal-power plant, and has become a benchmark for technology developers. Researchers like myself learned that a liquid sorbent (the substance that absorbs the carbon dioxide molecules) requires <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-soon-could-carbon-capture-technology-solve-industry-co-shortages-168310">large amounts of energy</a> for regeneration (compared to solid sorbents) and degrades over time, releasing toxic chemicals. </p>
<p>Identifying challenges like these — and proposing solutions — is how technological breakthroughs evolve. This project also demonstrated how carbon dioxide can be <a href="https://ptrc.ca/projects/co2-eor-and-storage/aquistore">safely stored in geological formations and how technology can be used to monitor that containment</a>. </p>
<h2>Encouraging innovations</h2>
<p>The small CCUS steps taken almost a decade ago are now being followed by a flurry of innovative technologies whose commercial deployment can be measured in months or in a few years. </p>
<p>For example, <a href="https://svanteinc.com/news/">Svante</a> is developing a carbon capture technology using structured solid sorbent to bind carbon dioxide. The solid sorbent is placed in a rotating column that captures diluted carbon dioxide from flue gas and releases concentrated carbon dioxide when it’s exposed to steam. Svante is currently scaling its operations and working with hard-to-abate industrial emissions — such as in cement and steel industries. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Silhouette of gases rising from an industrial complex with a golden sunset." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=32%2C262%2C5422%2C3374&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437347/original/file-20211213-25-a2gmu6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plumes rise from the chimneys of the Tenaris steel mill factory, in Dalmine, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Marketed as an industrial lung, <a href="https://co2solutions.com/poumon-industriel/">CO₂ solutions Inc.</a> is also developing carbon capture technology using a naturally occurring enzyme to capture carbon dioxide from flue streams and provide pure carbon dioxide stream as chemical feedstock for building material and fuels. </p>
<p>These are just a couple, from a large number of <a href="https://airminers.org/explore">examples of CCUS innovations</a> being developed and commercialized by start-ups and small-to-medium enterprises all over the world. Yet the perception of CCUS technologies continues to be that they are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112546">high-risk and too costly</a>. </p>
<h2>We need commitment and will</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iea.org/data-and-statistics/charts/levelised-cost-of-co2-capture-by-sector-and-initial-co2-concentration-2019">cost of carbon capture</a> reflects the capital cost of building the system, concentrating the incoming carbon dioxide stream and providing the energy required to purify the carbon dioxide stream. As technologies develop and more versions are adopted, the cost of carbon dioxide capture and conversion will decrease. </p>
<p>However, they will remain costly even with the best of scenarios. If we want to add value to carbon dioxide, thermodynamics tell us that it will inevitably require energy — and energy has a cost. </p>
<p>Just as we, as a society, have come to accept paying for the proper handling of our solid wastes, industry must accept paying for the proper handling of its carbon dioxide emissions. Clearly, we can no longer expect to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 C without considerable commitment of funds and political will. </p>
<p>Critics may say that we are gambling with <a href="https://theconversation.com/ottawas-latest-climate-plan-bets-on-expensive-and-unproven-carbon-capture-technologies-150527">unproven technologies</a>, but many of these technologies are far from unproven. Yes, many are being challenged through their scale-up, but this is typical of any new technology in any industry. We shouldn’t paint CCUS with a large brush stroke, but rather understand these technologies with granularity and in context. </p>
<p>There are many industrial emissions, such as lime kiln in the cement and pulp and paper industries, that require carbon dioxide capture from their processes. Just as we need to consider alternative fuel sources for transportation, heating and others, we need to look at industrial emissions in various sectors in context. </p>
<p>Demonstration projects allow us to continuously learn about how technologies improve, how the social systems react and adjust to changes, and how to change policies. At this point, we no longer have the luxury of finding the best solution that addresses such a complex problem as the climate emergency. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-world-leaders-hope-to-reach-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-and-why-some-experts-are-worried-climate-fight-podcast-part-2-169555">How world leaders hope to reach net zero emissions by 2050 – and why some experts are worried. Climate Fight podcast part 2</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Instead, we need to deploy some technologies based on our best judgement, learn from the cases and improve our understanding and technologies. We need to embrace some carefully chosen CCUS technologies and try to reduce emissions quickly, while we continue to develop and improve them and as we continue to deploy renewable energy sources. </p>
<p>Canada has contributed to CCUS through research and innovation, and demonstrated a few successful CCUS projects. With our commitment to <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-federal-election-made-big-strides-for-climate-and-the-environment-168918">place a price on carbon</a>, we have a greater chance at succeeding in applying CCUS technologies to decarbonize our activities. We have now entered the all-hands-on-deck phase to quickly mitigate the devastating effects of the climate emergency. Let’s shift the narrative on CCUS and reduce carbon emissions with all the available tools.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171454/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naoko Ellis receives funding from the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC). She is registered with the Engineers and Geoscientists British Columbia. </span></em></p>Carbon capture technologies have been labelled as a distraction. But as we enter the all-hands-on-deck phase of tackling climate change, they must not be ignored.Naoko Ellis, Professor in Chemical Engineering, University of British ColumbiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1602822021-06-02T06:01:40Z2021-06-02T06:01:40Z‘Green steel’ is hailed as the next big thing in Australian industry. Here’s what the hype is all about<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403934/original/file-20210602-354-17kb9tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C12%2C4055%2C2770&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Steel is a major building block of our modern world, used to make everything from cutlery to bridges and wind turbines. But the way it’s made – using coal – is making climate change worse.</p>
<p>On average, <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/10/9/1117">almost two tonnes</a> of carbon dioxide (CO₂) are emitted for every tonne of steel produced. This <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/emissions-by-sector">accounts for about 7%</a> of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cleaning up steel production is clearly key to Earth’s low-carbon future.</p>
<p>Fortunately, a new path is emerging. So-called “green steel”, made using hydrogen rather than coal, represents a huge opportunity for Australia. It would boost our exports, help offset inevitable job losses in the fossil fuel industry and go a long way to tackling climate change.</p>
<p>Australia’s abundant and cheap wind and solar resources mean we’re well placed to produce the hydrogen a green steel industry needs. So let’s take a look at how green steel is made, and the challenges ahead.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Steel workers at plant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403937/original/file-20210602-27-etu2ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A green steel industry would give Australia a slice of the low-emissions manufacturing boom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daniel Munoz/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Steeling for change</h2>
<p>Steel-making requires stripping oxygen from iron ore to produce pure iron metal. In traditional steel-making, this is done using coal or natural gas in a process that releases CO₂. In green steel production, hydrogen made from renewable energy replaces fossil fuels. </p>
<p>Australia exports almost <a href="https://minerals.org.au/minerals/ironore">900 million tonnes</a> of iron ore each year, but only makes <a href="https://www.worldsteel.org/steel-by-topic/statistics/World-Steel-in-Figures.html">5.5 million tonnes</a> of steel. This means we have great capacity to ramp up steel production. </p>
<p>A Grattan Institute report <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/green-steel-is-no-longer-a-fantasy/">last year found</a> if Australia captured about 6.5% of the global steel market, this could generate about A$65 billion in annual export revenue and create 25,000 manufacturing jobs in Queensland and New South Wales.</p>
<p>Steel-making is a complex process and is primarily achieved via one of three processes. Each of them, in theory, can be adapted to produce green steel. We examine each process below.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-in-the-box-seat-to-power-the-world-126341">Australia is in the box seat to power the world</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Roll of red-hot steel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403936/original/file-20210602-3305-11mhtev.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Steel-making is a complex process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Blast furnace</h2>
<p>Globally, <a href="https://www.worldsteel.org/steel-by-topic/statistics/steel-statistical-yearbook.html">about 70%</a> of steel is produced using the blast furnace method. </p>
<p>As part of this process, processed coal (also known as coke) is used in the main body of the furnace. It acts as a physical support structure for materials entering and leaving the furnace, among other functions. It’s also partially burnt at the bottom of the furnace to both produce heat and make carbon monoxide, which strips oxygen from iron ore leaving metallic iron. </p>
<p>This coal-driven process leads to CO₂ emissions. It’s <a href="https://www.thyssenkrupp.com/en/stories/sustainability-and-climate-protection/green-steel-review-of-phase-1-of-the-injection-trials">feasible</a> to replace a portion of the carbon monoxide with hydrogen. The hydrogen can strip oxygen away from the ore, generating water instead of CO₂. This requires renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen.</p>
<p>And hydrogen cannot replace carbon monoxide at a ratio of 1:1. If hydrogen is used, the blast furnace needs more externally added heat to keep the temperature high, compared with the coal method.</p>
<p>More importantly, solid coal in the main body of the furnace cannot be replaced with hydrogen. Some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biombioe.2018.04.021">alternatives</a> have been developed, involving biomass – a fuel developed from living organisms – blended with coal. </p>
<p>But sourcing biomass sustainably and at scale would be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seta.2018.03.001">a challenge</a>. And this process would still likely create some fossil-fuel derived emissions. So to ensure the process is “green”, these emissions would have to be captured and stored – a technology which is <a href="https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/what-is-carbon-capture-and-storage/">currently</a> expensive and unproven at scale.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australians-want-industry-and-theyd-like-it-green-steel-is-the-place-to-start-137999">Australians want industry, and they'd like it green. Steel is the place to start</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Smoke billows from steel plant" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403940/original/file-20210602-27-tks2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Producing steel using the blast furnace method produces substantial emissions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>2. Recycled steel</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.worldsteel.org/steel-by-topic/statistics/steel-statistical-yearbook.html">Around 30%</a> of the world’s steel is made from recycled steel. Steel has one of the highest recycling rates of any material.</p>
<p>Steel recycling is mainly done in arc furnaces, driven by electricity. Each tonne of steel produced using this method produces about <a href="https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/prospects/2020/11/pathways-to-decarbonisation-episode-two-steelmaking-technology/">0.4 tonnes of CO₂</a> – mostly due to emissions produced by burning fossil fuels for electricity generation. If the electricity was produced from renewable sources, the CO₂ output would be greatly reduced.</p>
<p>But steel cannot continuously be recycled. After a while, unwanted elements such as copper, nickel and tin begin to accumulate in the steel, reducing its quality. Also, steel has a long lifetime and low turnover rate. This means recycled steel cannot meet all steel demand, and some new steel must be produced.</p>
<h2>3. Direct reduced iron</h2>
<p>“Direct reduced iron” (DRI) technology often uses methane gas to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which are then used to turn iron ore into iron. This method still creates CO₂ emissions, and requires more electricity than the blast furnace method. However its overall emission intensity can be <a href="https://www.bhp.com/media-and-insights/prospects/2020/11/pathways-to-decarbonisation-episode-two-steelmaking-technology/">substantially lower</a>.</p>
<p>The method currently accounts for <a href="https://www.worldsteel.org/en/dam/jcr:f7982217-cfde-4fdc-8ba0-795ed807f513/World%2520Steel%2520in%2520Figures%25202020i.pdf">less than 5%</a> of production, and offers the greatest opportunity for using green hydrogen. </p>
<p>Up to 70% of the hydrogen derived from methane could be replaced with green hydrogen <a href="https://www.midrex.com/wp-content/uploads/Midrex-DFM-1stQtr2021-Final.pdf">without having to modify</a> the production process too much. However work on using 100% green hydrogen in this method is <a href="https://www.midrex.com/technology/midrex-process/midrex-h2/">ongoing</a>.</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/for-hydrogen-to-be-truly-clean-it-must-be-made-with-renewables-not-coal-128053">For hydrogen to be truly 'clean' it must be made with renewables, not coal</a>
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<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="workers walk past rolls of finished steel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/403938/original/file-20210602-25-1qa6pzj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New steel must be produced because not enough steel is available for recycling.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dean Lewins/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Becoming a green steel superpower</h2>
<p>The green steel transition won’t happen overnight and significant challenges remain.</p>
<p>Cheap, large-scale green hydrogen and renewable electricity will be required. And even if green hydrogen is used, to achieve net-zero emissions the blast furnace method will still require carbon-capture and storage technologies – and so too will DRI, for the time being.</p>
<p>Private sector investment <a href="https://grattan.edu.au/news/green-steel-is-no-longer-a-fantasy/">is needed</a> to create a global-scale export industry. Australian governments also have a big role to play, in building skills and capability, helping workers retrain, funding research and coordinating land-use planning.</p>
<p>Revolutionising Australia’s steel industry is a daunting task. But if we play our cards right, Australia can be a major player in the green manufacturing revolution.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160282/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tom Honeyands receives funding from BHP. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jessica Allen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s abundant wind and solar resources mean we’re well placed to produce the hydrogen a green steel industry needs. But there are technical and economic challenges ahead.Jessica Allen, Senior Lecturer and DECRA Fellow, University of NewcastleTom Honeyands, Director, Centre for Ironmaking Materials Research, University of NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1547682021-03-23T14:32:13Z2021-03-23T14:32:13ZSteel is vital to the green transition – here’s how to scrub out the industry’s emissions<p>Coal generated less than 2% of Britain’s electricity <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/britain-down-to-its-last-coal-power-station-rkvxftjg6">in 2020</a>, despite being the largest single energy source seven years earlier. While the country’s electricity gets cleaner every year, there’s one sector where this carbon-rich fossil fuel remains difficult to replace: steelmaking.</p>
<p>If approved, Woodhouse Colliery in Cumbria would be the first deep coal mine to open in the UK for 30 years, and it would produce 2.7 million tonnes of coking coal annually for the steel industry. </p>
<p>Steel has a high strength-to-weight ratio and is relatively cheap to produce – qualities that make the material invaluable in construction and the car industry. As a major component of wind turbines, steel will be a big part of the transition to green energy too. </p>
<p>That’s partially why the global demand for steel is forecast to increase by <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap">more than a third by 2050</a>. This could be bad news for the planet, though, as steel manufacturing already accounts for <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap">7% of CO₂ emissions worldwide</a> and <a href="https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/14920/pdf/">2.7% of UK emissions</a>.</p>
<p>The world needs to find a way to make lots of steel while reducing the industry’s carbon footprint. And <a href="https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/The-Sixth-Carbon-Budget-The-UKs-path-to-Net-Zero.pdf">the government’s independent Climate Change Committee</a> has recommended that steelmaking in the UK should reach near zero carbon emissions by 2035. So what’s the best route to a low-carbon steel industry?</p>
<h2>How to make steel</h2>
<p>To produce steel, iron ore is mined, processed and then alloyed with carbon and other elements. Coking coal, a form of coal with a high carbon content, plays three different roles in this process. It can help turn iron ore into iron, process iron into steel, and it’s also a fuel that can help power these processes.</p>
<p>In an integrated steelworks, coking coal is heated to around 1,100°C to produce a pure form of carbon called coke. Coke reduces the ore to iron in a blast furnace by reacting with oxygen to make carbon monoxide. One molecule of iron ore reacts with three molecules of carbon monoxide, leaving two iron atoms and three molecules of carbon dioxide. The greenhouse gas is then released into the atmosphere as waste. </p>
<p>Finally, iron is converted to steel by altering its carbon content in a basic oxygen furnace. Globally, 90% of the steel produced from iron ore is <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap">manufactured using this process</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A hand holding clumps of black coke." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391151/original/file-20210323-18-161uq8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Some coke (not the drink).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coke-hand-58342231">Kilukilu/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A carbon-neutral steel industry could substitute coal in each step of this process. But at the moment, coal remains the most cost-effective option in most cases.</p>
<h2>What are the alternatives?</h2>
<p>However, integrated steelworks aren’t the only place steel is produced – 630 million tonnes of steel scrap is <a href="https://www.bir.org/publications/facts-figures/download/643/175/36?method=view">recycled each year</a>, saving lots of energy and 950 million tonnes of CO₂, which is more than the annual emissions of the EU’s entire transportation sector. Recycling mainly takes place in an electric arc furnace, where electricity is used to melt and process scrap metal.</p>
<p>But this depends on vast quantities of scrap steel, and a 2015 study found that 85% of stainless steel is already <a href="https://www.recycling-magazine.com/2020/10/01/new-study-shows-life-cycle-of-stainless-steels/">recycled after its first use</a>. There’s little room to increase the percentage of scrap in new steel in Europe, so manufacturing steel from iron ore will still be necessary in the future.</p>
<p>Direct reduction of iron ore to form iron is another process that uses less energy than a blast furnace. <a href="http://www.iipinetwork.org/wp-content/Ietd/content/direct-reduced-iron.html">Natural gas</a> is the fossil fuel of choice for 90% of plants using this method, concentrated in the Middle East and North America where gas prices are low. In 2018, only <a href="https://www.midrex.com/wp-content/uploads/Midrex_STATSbookprint_2018Final-1.pdf">100.5 million tonnes</a> of steel were produced this way – just <a href="https://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2019/Global-crude-steel-output-increases-by-4.6--in-2018.html">5.6%</a> of the total.</p>
<p>Directly reducing iron ore using hydrogen generated by clean electricity – otherwise known as green hydrogen – and then processing that in an electric arc furnace also powered by green electricity, is one method for producing <a href="https://www.midrex.com/technology/midrex-process/midrex-h2/">low-carbon steel</a>. Continuing to use coal in integrated steelworks, but capturing and either <a href="https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/media/case-studies/capturing-and-utilising-waste-carbon-from-steelmaking">using</a> or storing the CO₂ emitted, is another.</p>
<p><a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-21209-4_10">Direct electrolysis</a>, where iron ore is turned directly into steel using electricity, also has potential, but it’s a long way from being commercially viable. With time running short, the surest route to the 2035 deadline for decarbonisation is to use the direct reduction method with hydrogen in electric arc furnaces, or use coal in integrated steelworks with carbon capture and storage. Globally, both are likely to <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap">play a role</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Inside the steelworks, sparks fly from the white heat of a furnace." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/391150/original/file-20210323-14-rsmokx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Electric arc furnaces can be used to decarbonise the steelmaking process.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/working-electroarc-furnace-metallurgical-plant-workshop-1129551926">Oleksiy Mark/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the UK, 95% of emissions from steelmaking come from just <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-decarbonisation-strategy">two sites</a>. It’s here the country’s path to a decarbonised steel sector will be decided. The recently published <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-decarbonisation-strategy">industrial decarbonisation strategy</a> doesn’t specify what technologies must be used, and so doesn’t exclude the continued use of coking coal so long as the carbon emissions can be captured and used or stored. </p>
<p>Carbon capture is already a competitive option for decarbonising industrial processes such as <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/transforming-industry-through-ccus">ammonia production</a>. But CO₂ mixes with other gases in steelworks emissions, making the capture process <a href="https://c4u-project.eu/the-project/">more difficult</a>. </p>
<p>Globally, it’s likely that coal will continue to be used for making steel in the 2030s and beyond, due to the lifespan of existing plants and the immaturity of low-carbon alternatives. Fortunately, coal use in steel manufacturing by 2050 would still be compatible with <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/iron-and-steel-technology-roadmap">the Paris Agreement</a>, as long as emissions were 40% of today’s levels and about a third of those were captured. Hydrogen and electrification would do the rest of the work.</p>
<p>Coal use in steelmaking does not need to cease immediately, but guaranteeing that the future of steelmaking will be low-carbon requires action now. Continued coal use must be met with radical improvements in carbon capture and storage technology – it’s here the industry needs to show it can keep up.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/154768/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Carr receives funding from ERDF, as part of the Reducing Industrial Carbon Emissions (RICE) project. He also receives funding from the Innovate UK IDCF Roadmap and Deployment projects. He is a member of the Energy Institute.</span></em></p>Low-carbon alternatives for steelmaking are numerous – but which will be ready in time?Stephen Carr, Lecturer in Energy Physics, University of South WalesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1201522019-07-18T14:40:45Z2019-07-18T14:40:45ZSouth Africa’s state owned companies: a complex history that’s seldom told<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/283638/original/file-20190711-173347-t4jvo8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eskom and Iscor were formed to feed the railway network's need for cheap electricity and steel</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The problems of South Africa’s state owned enterprises are in the headlines every day. Yet many have existed for over 80 years. </p>
<p>Why were they established in the first place and how have they survived this long? Their histories provide clues for their successes and failures.</p>
<p>State owned enterprises in South Africa date back to the 19th century when <a href="http://www.krugerpark.co.za/Krugerpark_History-travel/paul-kruger-history.html">Paul Kruger’s</a> Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek tried to promote local industries to stave off British control. Kruger’s government erected high tariffs against imports of many consumer goods as well as industrial goods used by the mining industry. At the same time it handed out monopoly concessions for local manufacture. In most cases, foreign capital still managed to control these enterprises – the most important for railway service and electricity generation for the mines.</p>
<p>Kruger’s aim of fostering economic independence through local industries was utterly defeated with the British victory in the <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/census/events/britain5.htm">South African War</a> in 1902. But the connection between economy and state lived on through <a href="https://www.artefacts.co.za/main/Buildings/archframes.php?archid=1184">the railway</a> and electricity concessions. By the 1920s, the expanding railway enterprise – the South African Railways and Harbours, now Transnet – needed more and cheaper electricity, and steel for rails. In 1923, the Smuts government established the <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/sites/heritage/Pages/1923.aspx">Electricity Supply Commission</a> (now Eskom) in part to serve the railways and also the growing mining industry. </p>
<p>In 1928, Prime Minister <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/james-barry-munnik-hertzog">Barry Hertzog</a> established the <a href="https://www.arcelormittalsa.com/Portals/0/The-History-of-ArcelorMittal-South-Africa.pdf">Iron and Steel Corporation</a> (ISCOR) to produce cheap steel rails for the South African Railways and Harbour and to create some independence from the profit-seeking European steel makers.</p>
<p>Although both Eskom and Iscor were established under state auspices, they enjoyed only tepid government support and faced stiff competition. They were established at a time when nearly all industrial goods and many consumer goods were imported at great cost. In the case of electricity, the major market – the Rand gold mines – was already under contract to the private <a href="http://www.eskom.co.za/sites/heritage/Pages/VFP-(1).aspx">Victoria Fall Power Company </a>. And in the case of steel, a European cartel of steel makers was ready to dump cheap steel on the South African market in order to kill off local production. Some foreign firms established small operations inside the country, but with profits still flowing back to overseas investors.</p>
<h2>How did they survive?</h2>
<p>Initially, both state corporations survived through close partnerships with their private competitors. In the case of Eskom, the power supplier agreed to provide electricity to the private Victoria Fall Power Company at cost while the the company passed it on to their mining customers at a hefty profit. </p>
<p>Iscor reached similar agreements with local engineering firms, providing them with raw steel to be fashioned into finished products. In addition, Iscor reached a compromise agreement with European steel producers in 1936. This essentially divided the local market, with Iscor providing approximately one-third of steel goods.</p>
<p>Even more contentious were the corporations’ labour policies. In the 1920s and 1930s, the white South African government pursued a policy of favouring white people in industrial jobs as a means of alleviating poverty in largely Afrikaans-speaking rural communities. State entities were under the most pressure to hire whites, many unskilled, into their operations. But, facing heavy competition, Iscor could not raise its costs and employed almost as many black people as white people on its factory floor in Pretoria. In fact, most white employees were foreign skilled workers. And the associated coal and iron ore mines (both Iscor and Eskom used vast amounts of coal) had predominantly black workers.</p>
<p>Both of the first state corporations were dependent on close business relations with private firms, often to their own detriment, and reliance on low labour costs to survive. But they could hardly profit or flourish under such conditions. During the Second World War, they were able to establish more successful operations under near monopoly conditions.</p>
<h2>Building monopolies</h2>
<p>During World War Two, South Africa’s position changed from an importer to an exporter of many industrial and consumer goods. Its normal trading partners –England and Germany – were obviously preoccupied with supporting their own wartime needs. In fact England called on South Africa to provide goods from bullets to blankets to help the Allied effort. The intensified local manufacture of so many goods placed pressure on Eskom and Iscor, but also provided great opportunities for expansion.</p>
<p>In Eskom’s case, the greediness of the private Victoria Fall Power Company throughout the war persuaded private capitalists that a partnership with the state would be beneficial. Electricity demand from the mines and also the wartime factories on the <a href="https://www.mineralscouncil.org.za/sa-mining/gold">Witwatersrand</a> (Rand) skyrocketed during the war. The cost of electricity to the mines rose by 10%. By the end of the war, Eskom posted a loss for the first time in its history while the Victoria Fall Power Company earned handsome profits. </p>
<p>By 1948, Eskom had succeeded in expropriating the private company with assistance from the largest mining company in the country – <a href="http://www.company-histories.com/Anglo-American-PLC-Company-History.html">Anglo-American Corporation</a> – which provided money for the buy-out. Eskom then linked all power stations in the country into a national grid allowing for cheaper production of electricity and lower prices to its customers.</p>
<p>Similarly, Iscor was able to eliminate competition through partnerships with the Anglo American Corporation. Iscor needed to find local engineering firms that would process its raw steel into war materiel. Many were either foreign or were owned by the <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/sammy-marks">Lewis and Marks</a> investment company that also operated a competing steel company, Union Steel. </p>
<p>In 1945, Anglo American – which became Iscor’s partner in all of the major engineering firms – bought out the company. Since Anglo was principally a customer for their goods, it was interested in low prices and not in reaping profits through steel manufacture.</p>
<h2>An Apartheid model</h2>
<p>The change of government in <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/south-african-general-elections-1948">1948</a> led to a brief change in policies toward the state corporations. The Nationalist government, wary of foreign and even local capital and suspicious of the state corporations’ ties to Anglo American, initially refused to provide the funds for further expansion of either Iscor’s or Eskom’s facilities. Partnerships with the local engineering firms were likewise ditched. </p>
<p>But by the early 1950s, realising the advantages to such arrangements, the government relented and the old ties were renewed, leading to massive increases in production by both firms. In addition, the government looked the other way as it became apparent that black workers were being used extensively at both firms – and even as semi-skilled workers at Iscor – yielding a wage bill that was less than a quarter what it was for whites.</p>
<p>Ultimately, the early state corporations could only survive by relying heavily on support from private capital in the form of partnerships and outright financial support, and the extensive use of disenfranchised and thus lower cost labour to insure low charges to its customers. </p>
<p>Yet this structure could not survive the flight of capital and the enfranchisement of the workforce that followed the democratic transition of the 1990s. </p>
<p>Iscor’s former partners fled to more lucrative parts of the world and the steel corporation was <a href="https://arcelormittalsa.com/Whoweare/OurHistory.aspx">sold</a> to private interests; and Eskom faced an expanding demand for residential electricity without the financial and marketing support of the mining houses.</p>
<p>Their survival now depends on adapting to the dramatic changes in South Africa’s post-apartheid economy rather than relying on their old strategies.</p>
<p><em>This article is based on a book – Manufacturing Apartheid: State Corporations in South Africa – written by Nancy L Clark. Published in 1994, it is now out of print.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120152/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nancy L Clark has received funding from the Fullbright-Hays research fund, Social Science Research Council, National Endowment for the Humanities, California State University, Louisiana State University, and University of California.</span></em></p>Though formed by the state, Eskom and Iscor enjoyed very little state support in their infancy. To survive, they had to cooperate with the private sector companies they were meant to compete with.Nancy L Clark, Dean and Professor Emeritus, Louisiana State University Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1089772018-12-21T16:49:43Z2018-12-21T16:49:43ZCelebrating solutions that chip away at big problems: 3 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251644/original/file-20181219-45394-rklicz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No longer tangled and pointing in the right direction</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thinking-about-structuring-business-process-solutions-1028847439">turgaygundogdu/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Editor’s note: As we come to the end of the year, Conversation editors take a look back at the stories that – for them – exemplified 2018.</em></p>
<p>Slowing the pace of climate change, increasing access to health care and comprehensively covering the news are very different but worthy goals with some things in common. </p>
<p>One is gridlock. The <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/world/climate-change-us-coal-cop24/index.html">nation’s leaders</a> are <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/sabotage-watch-tracking-efforts-to-undermine-the-aca">doing little</a> to <a href="http://www.governing.com/topics/politics/gov-trump-cuts-public-radio-broadcasting-rural-lc.html">solve these problems</a>.</p>
<p>Another is sticker shock: Holding the line at <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2018/10/ipcc-report-climate-change-impacts-forests-emissions/">2 degrees Celsius</a> of global warming – <a href="https://www.sciencenews.org/article/global-warming-limit-degrees-ipcc-climate-change">or less</a> – would cost trillions of dollars and require <a href="https://www.wri.org/publication/transforming-agriculture-climate-resilience-framework-systemic-change">systemic change</a>. The same goes for securing adequate <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/jul/21/how-expensive-would-single-payer-system-be/">medical treatment</a> for <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/how-does-health-insurance-work-3306069">all Americans</a>. <a href="https://www.knightfoundation.org/public-media-white-paper-2017-levin">Reporting the news</a> costs billions, but nobody knows how to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1246373">pay that tab</a> either.</p>
<p>To see how disheartening this is, search the internet for the terms “<a href="https://350.org/overcoming-despair/">climate change</a>,” “<a href="https://www.boswellbooks.com/book/9781595985941">health care</a>” or “<a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/crisis-of-trust-inside-newsrooms.php">newsrooms</a>” and “despair.” You’ll generate hundreds of thousands of hits or more.</p>
<p>That’s why I like to pause, especially at the year’s end, to celebrate innovations and encouraging trends that chip away at huge challenges.</p>
<h2>1. Bypassing drug shortages</h2>
<p>For example, the emergence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofit-drugmaker-civica-rx-aims-to-cure-a-health-care-system-ailment-104744">Civica Rx</a> is encouraging. The nonprofit generic drugmaker, which launched in 2018, will soon begin producing 14 hospital-administered generics. Most of them are too scarce to meet demand. </p>
<p>The venture has not disclosed its business model. But “should it choose to do so, Civica Rx could theoretically set the price at or near the cost of production,” writes <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ckOu9WsAAAAJ&hl=en">Stacie B. Dusetzina</a>, a Vanderbilt University health policy and cancer scholar. That would make a big difference in a country where pharmaceuticals can sell for <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/11/30/12945756/prescription-drug-prices-explained">triple what they cost elsewhere</a>.</p>
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<p>If Civica Rx succeeds at making treatment in hospitals cheaper and better, there will be fewer excuses for not fixing the rest of the health care system’s broken pieces. </p>
<h2>2. Scrapping emissions</h2>
<p>Just as Civica Rx makes it possible to feel more optimistic about the future of U.S. health care, the industrial-scale repurposing of steel and aluminum holds promise regarding climate change.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.isri.org/recycling-commodities/recycling-industry-yearbook">Scrap metal gets recycled</a> the way cans and boxes from <a href="https://www.citylab.com/city-makers-connections/recycling/">your household</a> do, only on a bigger scale. <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-recycling-more-steel-and-aluminum-could-slash-imports-without-a-trade-war-97766">Repurposing metal</a> from demolished buildings and nonroadworthy cars saves money, tempers landfill problems and uses much less energy than starting from scratch.</p>
<p>Because the process requires less power, it “has a much-smaller carbon footprint,” explains <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4XQeuikAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Daniel Cooper</a>, a University of Michigan mechanical engineer. “The greenhouse gas emissions for recycling steel are around one-quarter of what they are for making new steel, and recycling aluminum cuts emissions by more than 80 percent.”</p>
<p><iframe id="fX2LY" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fX2LY/10/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Granted, <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/business/US-Struggles-With-What-to-Do-With-Tons-of-Recycled-Material-489971551.html">China’s unwillingness to import</a> as much American junk as it used to due to <a href="https://waste-management-world.com/a/tariffs-creating-more-problems-than-they-solve-for-metal-recyclers">trade tensions</a> is disrupting global scrap markets.</p>
<p>But the U.S. could potentially use all of steel and aluminum it throws out right here, Cooper contends. That would cut down on emissions even more by bypassing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/cargo-ships-are-emitting-boatloads-of-carbon-and-nobody-wants-to-take-the-blame-108731">carbon released into the atmosphere from hauling cargo</a> across oceans.</p>
<h2>3. Teaming up between newsrooms</h2>
<p>The traditional way to cover the news is inefficient. Many journalists often report on the same events and scandals, working in isolation and duplicating efforts. </p>
<p>That’s starting to change, observes <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=n_3ICpcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">Magda Konieczna</a>, an assistant professor of journalism at Temple University. </p>
<p>A growing number of news organizations “are sharing their high-quality journalism with other outlets,” she explains. “By teaming up, they can inform bigger audiences about the problems like corruption, environmental dangers and abusive business practices.”</p>
<p>Most of the time, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/nonprofit-newsrooms-are-reaching-bigger-audiences-by-teaming-up-with-other-outlets-102293">sharing involves news nonprofits</a> without big audiences, Konieczna finds. This collaborative approach helps “elevate the quality of the media where people are already going for news: newspapers and newscasts, whether directly or through Facebook and Twitter.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108977/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Fixes for small pieces of massive problems show that overarching crises may be less hopeless than they appear.Emily Schwartz Greco, Philanthropy + Nonprofits Editor, The ConversationLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/929042018-03-08T21:17:42Z2018-03-08T21:17:42ZGeorge W. Bush tried steel tariffs. It didn’t work<p>President Donald Trump seems to be on a tariff-setting tear in recent weeks. </p>
<p>It all began on March 8, when the president finally followed through on an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/12/top-obama-bush-advisers-band-together-to-warn-trump-against-steel-tariffs/">almost year-old threat</a> to restrict imports of foreign steel. </p>
<p>The administration <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-08/trump-to-sign-steel-tariff-order-with-wiggle-room-for-allies">slapped</a> a 25 percent tariff on the metal, while also putting a 10 percent duty on foreign aluminum. After <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/01/business/trump-tariffs.html">initially suggesting</a> there’d be no exceptions, Trump <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/08/us/politics/trump-tariff-announcement.html">promised</a> to be “very flexible” and has exempted most U.S. allies, including Mexico, Canada, the European Union and South Korea. This suggests that China is the primary target of the steel tariffs, buttressed by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/trumps-60-billion-in-china-tariffs-will-create-more-problems-than-they-solve-93897">other punitive measures</a> the U.S. has taken against its biggest trading partner.</p>
<p>While Trump cited “national security” as the impetus for the tariffs, he’s been vowing since the campaign <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-a-huge-hole-in-trumps-promise-to-bring-back-us-manufacturing-jobs-2017-3">to use trade policy to restore jobs</a> to the American manufacturing sector, which has suffered in recent decades. The <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2235256">steel sector</a>, for example, <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WpuZ0bpoCVoC&lpg=PP1&dq=striking%20steel&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q=steel%20employment&f=false">supported as many as 650,000 American workers in the 1950s</a>, yet now employs only <a href="http://www.steel.org/%7E/media/Files/AISI/Reports/2017-AISI-Profile-Book.pdf">about 140,000</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B744wv0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My research</a> focuses on the politics of trade and <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B744wv0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">what prompts political leaders</a> to impose restrictions like tariffs. The last time a president slapped tariffs on steel offers an illuminating lesson – and cautionary tale – for Trump’s new policy.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209614/original/file-20180308-30972-3skr53.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Trump holds up a proclamation on steel imports on March 8.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Susan Walsh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The Bush steel tariffs</h2>
<p>In early 2002, then-President George W. Bush <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/general/2002/03/05/bush-steel.htm">imposed steel tariffs</a> of up to 30 percent on imports of steel in an effort to shore up domestic producers against low-cost imports. </p>
<p>These tariffs were controversial both at home and abroad because, even as they helped steelmakers, they squeezed steel users, such as the auto industry.</p>
<p>They were also seen as hypocritical at a time when the Republican administration was trying to encourage other countries to liberalize trade policies – and reduce their tariffs – through the <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm">Doha Round of World Trade Organization</a> talks that were happening at the time. </p>
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<h2>Transfer of wealth</h2>
<p>So what happens when a country imposes tariffs? </p>
<p>The <a href="http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch90/T90-11.php">general economic view</a> of trade protection says that tariffs transfer money from a good’s consumers to its producers. </p>
<p>Let’s say a country slaps a 20 percent tariff on imports of beef. The country’s beef producers will be much better off because now imported meat is as much as 20 percent more expensive, meaning domestic companies will be able to sell more rib-eyes and raise their prices. That’s bad news for restaurants and fans of steaks and hamburgers, who will pay those higher prices.</p>
<p>This transfer is usually <a href="http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch90/T90-11.php">economically inefficient</a> because the benefits that domestic producers receive from a tariff will generally be less than the costs to domestic consumers. </p>
<p>One of the reasons they still happen despite this inefficiency is that consumers are typically a very large and dispersed group. While they collectively may lose a great deal of money in higher costs from a tariff, the cost to any one individual may not be that great. Therefore, consumers are often <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674537514">less motivated in opposing trade protection</a> than a relatively narrower and more unified group of producers who have a lot to gain.</p>
<h2>The special case of steel</h2>
<p>Steel tariffs, however, don’t follow this pattern. </p>
<p>That’s because far from being broadly dispersed, steel consumers <a href="http://www.steel.org/%7E/media/Files/AISI/Reports/2017-AISI-Profile-Book.pdf">are heavily concentrated</a> in the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?ind=C">construction</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=M02">automotive</a> industries – which have very powerful political lobbies of their own. As a result, steel consumers are more likely to balk at the higher prices that would result from tariffs. </p>
<p>In 2002, it was pushback from these industries that helped persuade the National Association of Manufacturers to <a href="https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/pb/pb03-1.pdf">come out against the tariffs</a>. Eventually the World Trade Organization ruled the policy illegal because it violated U.S. trade commitments, which led to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/usa.wto1">threat of a trade war</a> with the European Union.</p>
<p>The Bush administration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/usa.wto">withdrew the tariffs</a> in December 2003, about 21 months after they were imposed, but not without a cost. The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition found that 200,000 workers in U.S. manufacturing <a href="http://www.tradepartnership.com/pdf_files/2002jobstudy.pdf">lost their jobs</a> as a result of the tariffs. For comparison, the entire U.S. steel industry employed 197,000 at the time. </p>
<h2>The politics of trade</h2>
<p>So why is Trump doing this? </p>
<p>As <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0343.2011.00387.x/full">my research shows</a>, there are always <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596714000286">competing voices lobbying for and against trade protection</a>, and those preferences alone aren’t enough to push a protective measure into law. That depends on how effective an interest group is in winning the support of powerful political patrons. </p>
<p>The steel industry has had several things working in its favor. Trump <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/21/politics/donald-trump-tariffs/index.html">has said repeatedly</a> that he wants to protect American manufacturing squeezed by foreign competition, and U.S. steel certainly fits that profile. But more importantly, steel production is concentrated in old industrial states in the Midwest, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. These states have been swing states in recent presidential elections, which gives industries with workers in those regions outsized influence. </p>
<p>The U.S. sugar industry, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/trade/report/us-trade-policy-gouges-american-sugar-consumers">which is very heavily protected</a>, benefits in a similar way by being heavily concentrated in Florida, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/09/politics/election-2016-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-florida/index.html">frequent swing state</a>.</p>
<p>Still, despite steel’s <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2235256">political advantages</a>, tariffs are still a large gamble for Trump. While the impact of steel tariffs on other domestic manufacturers such as construction and automotive manufacturing is likely to be bad, the bigger concern is that they set off a <a href="https://theconversation.com/trade-wars-are-good-3-past-conflicts-tell-a-very-different-story-92801">trade war</a>. </p>
<p>That would have negative consequences for American consumers and producers alike, as well as for the U.S. economy.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on April 4 in incorporate the latest news on Trump’s tariffs.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/92904/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Hauk has previously received funding from the Center for International Business Education and Research, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Education</span></em></p>President Trump slapped steep tariffs on steel imports, echoing protectionist measures taken by Bush in 2002.William Hauk, Associate Professor of Economics, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/843412017-10-18T23:53:25Z2017-10-18T23:53:25ZHow China’s skewed sex ratio is making President Xi’s job a whole lot harder<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190924/original/file-20171018-32361-mgdwcu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Chinese President Xi Jinping presides over the opening ceremony of the 19th Party Congress.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Ng Han Guan</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>As odd as it sounds, China’s economic policy is being held hostage by its heavily skewed sex ratio.</p>
<p>China’s excess of young, unmarriageable males poses an acute dilemma for <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11551399">President Xi Jinping</a> and other leaders as they set the country’s path for the next five years during the <a href="http://thediplomat.com/tag/19th-party-congress/">19th Chinese Communist Party Congress</a>, which opened on Oct. 18. </p>
<p>After years of heavy spending and investment to boost growth and employment, China is at risk of economic stagnation if it doesn’t restructure the economy. Yet there is peril that doing so will lead to dangerous levels of unrest among the millions of unmarried men – known as “bare branches” – who will be laid off from shuttered unneeded steel, coal and auto factories. </p>
<p>So far Xi has tempered reform and kept the money taps open in order to avoid political instability. As the costs of domestic economic imbalances rise and international pressures to cut excess industrial capacity grow, Xi will have to decide what to do about the bare branches strewn in his way. And that won’t be an easy task, as <a href="https://www.abebooks.com/9780030545894/International-Political-Economy-Struggle-Power-0030545897/plp">my research</a> on the intersection of economics and politics suggests.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190952/original/file-20171019-32378-1prm9j1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese workers eat their lunch outside a construction site wall depicting the skyline of the Chinese capital at the Central Business District in Beijing.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Andy Wong</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>China’s spending spree</h2>
<p>This dilemma has been building for almost a decade, since Chinese leaders responded to the 2008 global financial crisis by channeling massive investments into infrastructure and heavy industry to sustain economic growth and prevent political unrest. </p>
<p>The proportion of China’s economy devoted to investment <a href="http://fromtone.com/what-is-happening-in-china/">shot up</a> from roughly a third to close to half – a level <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2016/12/31/Is-China-Over-Investing-and-Does-it-Matter-40121">unprecedented</a> among modern economies (that compares with only <a href="http://www.theglobaleconomy.com/USA/Capital_investment/">20 percent</a> in the U.S. in 2015). Since 2008, for example, <a href="http://www.meti.go.jp/english/mobile/2016/20160727001en.html">China’s crude steel production capacity</a> has more than doubled, reaching close to half of the world total. </p>
<p>This investment has proven <a href="https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecri/2011/492325/">remarkably successful</a>, at least in the short term, helping China avoid the economic downturn experienced by Western countries. China’s investment binge also created the world’s <a href="https://www.economist.com/news/china/21714383-and-theres-lot-more-come-it-waste-money-china-has-built-worlds-largest">largest bullet train network</a> and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-china-is-dominating-the-solar-industry/">made it a global leader</a> in solar panel production. </p>
<p>The binge, however, has also left China with a morning-after hangover that threatens to become a “national financial and economic crisis” unless it implements reforms, <a href="https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1609/1609.00415.pdf">according to a group</a> of Oxford-based economists. The report suggests that China focus on fewer but higher-quality infrastructure projects while accelerating a shift in demand from investment to consumption.</p>
<p>Yet China <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/1fe4e1e8-88b0-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787">continues to rely</a> heavily upon infrastructure investment to drive growth. Besides steel, the economy also remains plagued by industrial overcapacity in autos, cement, glass, solar cells, aluminum and coal. Recent <a href="https://thediplomat.com/2017/03/chinas-two-sessions-and-the-2017-economic-outlook/">efforts</a> to close old and inefficient factories have had little effect so far.</p>
<p>This has international consequences as well because all that excess steel, glass and aluminum must go somewhere and often ends up in other countries, hurting domestic markets. Steel exports to the U.S., for example, <a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2108732/trump-rejected-chinese-offer-cut-steel-overcapacity">surged 22 percent</a> from August 2016 to July 2017, <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/trump-seems-to-genuinely-want-a-trade-war-with-china.html">prompting retaliatory threats</a> from President Donald Trump. </p>
<p>So why did Chinese policymakers extend the investment spree so long? Why have they been reluctant to close down factories producing excess <a href="https://qz.com/699979/how-chinas-overproduction-of-steel-is-damaging-companies-and-countries-around-the-world/">steel</a>, <a href="http://www.europeanchamber.com.cn/en/publications-overcapacity-in-china">solar cells or glass</a> or stop funding the development of uninhabited “<a href="http://www.wired.com/2016/02/kai-caemmerer-unborn-cities/">ghost cities</a>”? </p>
<p>While there are many factors at play, one deserves more attention than it has received: China’s leaders fear the consequences of high unemployment among “bare branches,” a term used in China for young, low-status men who, because they are typically unmarriageable, represent endpoints on the family tree.</p>
<h2>Growth of the ‘bare branches’</h2>
<p>Bare branches are a result of one of the most skewed sex ratios in the world. </p>
<p>China has <a href="https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/">106.3 males for every 100 females</a>, compared with a global ratio of 101.8 to 100. In coming years, the workforce imbalance will only worsen because there are <a href="https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ch.html">117 boys under age 15 for every 100 girls</a>. This is a result of extreme gender discrimination favoring males, a tendency exacerbated by <a href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151113-datapoints-china-one-child-policy/">China’s one-child policy</a>, which was in force from 1979 to 2015. Typically, unwanted female fetuses, identified through ultrasound, are <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3168620/">aborted</a>. </p>
<p>This has resulted in a surplus of young bare-branch males. Bare branches are typically low status, since better-educated and higher-income males have better odds of attracting marriage partners. Lacking either skills or the strong community ties brought on by family life, these young, unmarried men make up a large proportion of the internal migrant population that relocates from rural areas to cities in search of work.</p>
<p>Researchers <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/bare-branches">Valerie Hudson and Andrea den Boer</a> established that societies with large and growing numbers of bare branches are at risk of rising crime and civil unrest. This is especially true if inadequate employment opportunities are available for unmarried young men. The skewed sex ratio is accompanied by other worrisome trends, including <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsu/2016/11/18/high-income-inequality-still-festering-in-china/#5e33eaa21e50">high income inequality</a> and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/datablog/2015/oct/29/impact-china-one-child-policy-four-graphs">rising number of elderly</a> that must be supported by each working-age person. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190954/original/file-20171019-32370-s4rue8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=507&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A worker labors at a steel mill in a village of Jiangyin city, Jiangsu Province, China.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A growing risk of unrest</h2>
<p>It’s this fear of rising unemployment and unrest that has caused China’s hesitation to carry out economic reform. </p>
<p>Some economists believe that China’s <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-economy-jobs/chinas-unemployment-rate-falls-below-4-percent-at-end-of-first-quarter-idUSKBN17R0JN">official unemployment rate</a> of 4 percent understates the <a href="http://www.nber.org/digest/oct15/w21460.html">reality</a>, which may be more than double that. The rate of unemployment is politically sensitive since unemployed workers are more likely to engage in civil unrest and other anti-regime activities. </p>
<p>And males are <a href="http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/documents/publication/wcms_371375.pdf">overrepresented</a> in the industries that would be hardest hit by reform like construction and heavy industry. On the other hand, females make up a disproportionate share of workers in the service sector, which must expand in order to sustain economic growth as spending on infrastructure and industry slows.</p>
<p>China’s growth model has actually exacerbated the unemployment problem because infrastructure, construction and heavy industry are relatively capital-intensive, meaning that a given level of investment produces fewer jobs than would be the case were the same investment devoted to service sectors (which are relatively labor-intensive). In other words, a greater emphasis on services would soak up more labor overall and reduce dangerous levels of unemployment.</p>
<p>If China shifts to sector-led growth, the risk of unrest will grow as women find more jobs <a href="http://www.scmp.com/business/companies/article/1975810/china-will-need-cut-35-million-jobs-across-six-core-industries">at the expense of men</a>, especially those bare branches. So even if China manages a “soft landing” that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/asia/china-premier-li-keqiang-economy.html?_r=0">increases employment overall</a>, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-26/chinas-strikes-and-mass-unemployment-a-growing-worry/7649770">civil and political unrest</a> could rise as well if the proportion of bare branch males among those who remain unemployed also climbs. </p>
<p>This helps explain why Chinese authorities have directed massive amounts of investment into those male-dominated sectors following the global financial crisis. And why, in recent years, they have been slow to implement economic reforms that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/17/world/asia/china-premier-li-keqiang-economy.html?_r=1">they themselves acknowledge</a> are needed for the overall health of the Chinese economy. </p>
<p>From the perspective of Beijing, better some inefficient investments than the political risks of tossing millions of unemployed young males into the streets of urban China.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/190955/original/file-20171019-32355-1qeq9ys.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Chinese President Xi Jinping promised the usual economic reforms in his speech to the Party Congress.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>No good options</h2>
<p>In his opening address to the 19th Party Congress, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress/chinas-xi-lays-out-vision-for-new-era-led-by-still-stronger-communist-party-idUSKBN1CM35L?il=0">Xi made the usual promises</a> about deepening market reforms, reducing industrial overcapacity and shifting the economy from investment-led to consumption-led growth and focusing on fewer but higher-quality infrastructure projects. Given that these promises are not new, there is room for skepticism about implementation. </p>
<p>But even if reform is successful, it will mean large numbers of unemployed bare branches. That is why economic restructuring must be accompanied by generous unemployment benefits, job retraining programs and support for workers who need to relocate in order to find jobs. The gender composition of the service sector must also change in order to absorb unemployed males. </p>
<p>In short, Xi could forestall reform, thus keeping the bare branches busily employed at the risk of an economic crisis and <a href="http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/08/trump-seems-to-genuinely-want-a-trade-war-with-china.html">punitive tarriffs</a> from trading partners like the U.S. Or he could cut investment and close thousands of factories, creating a significant risk of <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/22/asia/china-labor-unrest-we-the-workers/index.html">domestic unrest</a> and potentially necessitating some combination of a strengthened social safety net and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-congress/chinas-xi-lays-out-vision-for-new-era-led-by-still-stronger-communist-party-idUSKBN1CM35L?il=0">political repression</a> to contain it. </p>
<p>Whichever path Xi picks, bare branches will be part of the journey.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/84341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Skidmore does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>China’s surplus of unmarriageable men poses a stark dilemma for Xi and other leaders as they set the country’s economic course for the next five years.David Skidmore, Professor of Political Science, Drake UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/808472017-07-18T00:26:17Z2017-07-18T00:26:17ZWhy Trump’s threat to slap tariffs on foreign steel is a bad idea<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/178518/original/file-20170717-27512-k7835b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A worker at an auto parts plant in Orion Township, Michigan, lifts coiled steel into place. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Paul Sancya</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump attracted a lot of support by <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/there-is-a-huge-hole-in-trumps-promise-to-bring-back-us-manufacturing-jobs-2017-3">promising to restore jobs</a> to the American manufacturing sector. </p>
<p>One sector that has been hit hard by purportedly unfair foreign competition is the U.S. steel industry. It <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=WpuZ0bpoCVoC&lpg=PP1&dq=striking%20steel&pg=PA121#v=onepage&q=steel%20employment&f=false">supported as many as 650,000 American workers in the 1950s</a> yet now employs only <a href="http://www.steel.org/%7E/media/Files/AISI/Reports/2017-AISI-Profile-Book.pdf">about 140,000</a>. </p>
<p>In order to restore <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2235256">American steel’s</a> flagging fortunes, the Trump administration has been exploring <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/12/top-obama-bush-advisers-band-together-to-warn-trump-against-steel-tariffs/?utm_term=.1bf9584c7667">increased tariff or quota restrictions on steel imports</a>, citing national security concerns.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/13/trump-tariffs-quotas-steel-240524">Trump upped the ante</a> this month in an exchange with reporters on Air Force One: </p>
<p>“Steel is a big problem… I mean, they’re dumping steel. Not only China, but others. We’re like a dumping ground, OK? They’re dumping steel and destroying our steel industry. They’ve been doing it for decades, and I’m stopping it. It’ll stop.”</p>
<p>My research focuses on the politics of trade, including the use of restrictions like tariffs. A look back at the last time a president slapped tariffs on steel is illuminating for the current debate.</p>
<h2>The Bush steel tariffs</h2>
<p>Imposing steel tariffs is not a new thing. </p>
<p>In early 2002, then-President George W. Bush <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/general/2002/03/05/bush-steel.htm">imposed steel tariffs</a> of up to 30 percent on imports of steel in an effort to shore up domestic producers against low-cost imports. These tariffs were controversial both at home and abroad because, even as they helped steelmakers, they squeezed steel users, such as the auto industry.</p>
<p>They were also seen as hypocritical at a time when the Republican administration was trying to encourage other countries to liberalize trade policies – and reduce their tariffs – through the (now-foundering) <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm">Doha Round of World Trade Organization</a> talks. </p>
<p>This case is instructive as to why President Trump may have a tough time imposing steel tariffs.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch90/T90-11.php">general economic view</a> of trade protection says that tariffs transfer money from a good’s consumers to its producers. </p>
<p>Let’s say a country slaps a 20 percent tariff on imports of beef. The country’s beef producers will be much better off because now imported meat is as much as 20 percent more expensive, meaning domestic companies will be able to sell more ribeyes and raise their prices. That’s bad news for restaurants and fans of steaks and hamburgers, who will pay those higher prices.</p>
<p>This transfer is usually <a href="http://internationalecon.com/Trade/Tch90/T90-11.php">economically inefficient</a> because the benefits that domestic producers receive from a tariff will generally be less than the costs to domestic consumers. In the case of the steel industry, <a href="https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/pb/pb03-1.pdf">two economists found</a> that the Bush policy would cost US$400,000 a year per steel job saved.</p>
<p>Despite the fact that imposing tariffs is economically inefficient, one of the reasons they still happen is that consumers are typically a very large and dispersed group. While they collectively may lose a great deal of money in higher costs from a tariff, the cost to any one individual may not be that great. Therefore, consumers are often <a href="http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674537514">less motivated in opposing trade protection</a> than a relatively narrower and more unified group of producers who have a lot to gain.</p>
<p>Steel tariffs, however, don’t follow this pattern. </p>
<p>That’s because far from being broadly dispersed, steel consumers <a href="http://www.steel.org/%7E/media/Files/AISI/Reports/2017-AISI-Profile-Book.pdf">are heavily concentrated</a> in the <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/lobbying.php?ind=C">construction</a> and <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/indusclient.php?id=M02">automotive</a> industries – which have very powerful political lobbies of their own. As a result, steel consumers are more likely to balk at the higher prices that would result from tariffs. </p>
<p>In 2002, it was pushback from these industries that helped persuade the National Association of Manufacturers to <a href="https://piie.com/sites/default/files/publications/pb/pb03-1.pdf">come out against the tariffs</a>. Eventually the World Trade Organization ruled the policy illegal because it violated U.S. trade commitments, which led to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/usa.wto1">threat of a trade war</a> with the European Union.</p>
<p>The Bush administration <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/dec/04/usa.wto">withdrew the tariffs</a> in December 2003, about 21 months after they were imposed, but not without a cost. The Consuming Industries Trade Action Coalition found that 200,000 workers in U.S. manufacturing <a href="http://www.tradepartnership.com/pdf_files/2002jobstudy.pdf">lost their jobs</a> as a result of the tariffs. </p>
<h2>The politics of trade</h2>
<p>Of course, there are always competing voices lobbying for and against trade protection, and those preferences alone aren’t enough to push a protective measure into law. That depends on how effective an interest group is in working through the governmental process and winning the support of powerful political patrons. </p>
<p>Some of my <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1468-0343.2011.00387.x/full">own research</a> has <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0147596714000286">focused on this last step</a>. Politicians have an incentive to get elected and reelected to office. Therefore, the differing electoral rules that a country has along with which constituencies are considered pivotal to getting elected will help determine which industry voices get heard when asking for trade protection. </p>
<p>In that vein, the steel industry has several things working in its favor. Trump has said repeatedly that he wants to protect American manufacturing squeezed by foreign competition, and U.S. steel certainly fits that profile. But more importantly, steel production is concentrated in old industrial states in the Midwest, such as Pennsylvania and Ohio. These states have been swing states in recent presidential elections, which gives industries with workers in those regions outsized influence. </p>
<p>The U.S. sugar industry, <a href="http://www.heritage.org/trade/report/us-trade-policy-gouges-american-sugar-consumers">which is very heavily protected</a>, benefits in a similar way from being heavily concentrated in Florida, a <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/09/politics/election-2016-donald-trump-hillary-clinton-florida/index.html">frequent swing state</a> in presidential elections.</p>
<p>The flip side is that this opens administrations to <a href="http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1259&context=bjil">accusations of playing politics</a> with U.S. trade, as was the case with the Bush White House in 2002. </p>
<h2>Will Trump roll the dice?</h2>
<p>Despite the <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/2235256">political advantages that the steel industry</a> has working in its favor, protective tariffs would still be a large gamble by the Trump administration.</p>
<p>The ostensible justification for the tariffs is <a href="https://www.commerce.gov/news/fact-sheets/2017/04/fact-sheet-section-232-investigations-effect-imports-national-security">Section 232 of the 1962 Trade Expansion Act</a>. This law authorizes the president to impose tariffs on imports that jeopardize domestic industries deemed to be vital to national security. </p>
<p>While the WTO also allows national security concerns to be used as a justification for extraordinary trade protection, <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news17_e/good_10jul17_e.htm">it seems unlikely</a> that other WTO members will accept this reasoning. The Section 232 justification is probably a stretch in this case. Using the steel industry’s own numbers, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/posteverything/wp/2017/06/20/this-generations-idiotic-trade-policy-is-about-to-be-born/?utm_term=.bde9a529f4c1">only about 3 percent</a> of domestically produced steel in the U.S. goes towards defense industries.</p>
<p>The impact of steel tariffs on other domestic manufacturers such as construction and automotive manufacturing is likely to be bad. However, the bigger concern would be that the WTO again rule such tariffs to be in violation of U.S. trade commitments. Such an event would likely touch off a trade war between the U.S. and its major trading partners, particularly the European Union. </p>
<p>That threat would have negative consequences for U.S. consumers and producers alike.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80847/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Hauk has previously received funding from the University of South Carolina's Center for International Business Education and Research. </span></em></p>The president has promised to put a stop to foreign companies ‘dumping’ steel on US markets. Former President Bush tried the same thing, and here’s what happened.William Hauk, Associate Professor of Economics, University of South CarolinaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/769162017-06-14T07:59:34Z2017-06-14T07:59:34ZFact Check: is China dumping steel?<blockquote>
<p>We are continuing to act, when necessary, against unfair trading conditions in the steel sector, and against foreign dumping.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem speaks after the EU introduced new <a href="http://www.financialexpress.com/industry/eu-slaps-china-with-new-steel-anti-dumping-duties/710666/">duties on steel products from China</a> on Friday, June 9.</strong></p>
<p>China’s hold over the international steel market is pretty clear. It produces <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CBP-7317">half the world’s steel</a> and in 2015, finished imports from China to the EU were <a href="http://www.eurofer.org/News%26Events/PublicationsLinksList/201605-AnnualReport.pdf">up 140% on 2013</a>. Imports now account for a quarter of the EU market, and at the same time, prices for a range of major EU <a href="http://www.eurofer.org/News%26Events/PublicationsLinksList/201605-AnnualReport.pdf">product classes have collapsed</a>. </p>
<p>This trend, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/chinas-steel-exports-plunge-amid-new-tariffs-1481180615">replicated to differing degrees worldwide</a>, has <a href="http://fortune.com/2017/04/07/donald-trump-executive-order-steel-dumping-xi-jinping-china/">led to accusations</a> in the US and elsewhere that China is selling its steel at a loss, or more accurately in this case, keeping costs artificially low so that other producers cannot compete, in a practice widely known as “dumping”.</p>
<p>In the EU, tariffs have dented Chinese imports but it’s a bit like plugging one leak only to find another. Chinese imports are replaced by products from places like Iran, Russia and Ukraine. Imports from Iran have <a href="http://www.eurofer.org/News%26Events/Press%20releases/Press%20Release%20%20European%20trade%20defence%20ef.fhtml">increased almost tenfold since 2012</a>. The EU has numerous trade defence measures on other nations, and not just on a range of Chinese steel products.</p>
<p>In the UK, imports are also on the up. According to UK trade association UK Steel, imports accounted for 60% of UK demand in 2015, up from 57% in 2012. Chinese steel imports accounted for 11% of 2015 UK steel demand, up from 2% in 2011. UK imports from the EU remain twice as high <a href="https://www.eef.org.uk/uk-steel/news-blogs-and-publications/publications/2017/mar/key-statistics-2016">as from the rest of the world</a>, but no one can escape downward pricing pressure from such a huge player.</p>
<p>The World Trade Organisation defines dumping as state interference in the market: protection leading to subsidised exports at prices below real market costs. Specifically, dumping occurs when a country’s average export price over time is less than a reasonable price for the same product when sold at home. This <a href="https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/19-adp.pdf">characterisation of dumping</a> is based on market prices rather than production costs – UK Steel contends this is unrepresentative. </p>
<p>Why would China be dumping steel? Well, the European trade body, Eurofer, estimates that China’s excess production – what it makes beyond the level of domestic demand – is as much as double total EU demand. In short, it has a lot to sell. Eurofer also believes that China exports steel <a href="http://www.eurofer.org/News%26Events/PublicationsLinksList/201605-AnnualReport.pdf">at below production costs</a>. According to UK Steel, Chinese producers lose US$34 on every tonne produced. International steel trade associations <a href="http://www.eurofer.eu/Issues%26Positions/Trade/ws.res/Steel_Industry_Adjustment_Policy_Comments_Appendix.fhtml/Steel_Industry_Adjustment_Policy_Comments.pdf">also believe that China sells below</a> its normal domestic price and cost.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/168739/original/file-20170510-28095-dnerv0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.worldsteel.org/media-centre/press-releases/2017/march-2017-crude-steel-production.html">worldsteel.org</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One consultant, <a href="http://www.thinkdesk.de/index.php?id=71">Think!Desk</a>, has argued that due largely to coke and labour costs, the production costs of a typical Chinese steel factory are marginally (€30 per tonne) less than those of European producers. As China, however, imports around half its iron ore, this advantage is outweighed by shipping costs. </p>
<p>The analysis concludes that compared to the EU, the cost base of Chinese steel benefits from preferential treatment on tax arrangements, bank loans, land use rights, environmental standards, import substitution subsidies and grants and unpaid dividends. </p>
<h2>Verdict</h2>
<p>In short, Chinese steel may not possess a “natural” cost advantage, but does operate at artificially depressed costs levels. In other words, <a href="http://www.eurofer.org/News%26Events/PublicationsLinksList/2015011901-ChinaSteelStudy.pdf">China is dumping steel</a>.</p>
<p>But the issue of dumping is not simply technical and legal; it is political and ideological. International trade associations argue that state intervention in China’s steel industry leads to massive oversupply and damages global market discipline. The demand is made that China relinquishes state ownership and control of its steel industry: a dramatic call, unlikely to be heeded. </p>
<p>And for all the protests in the UK, the irony is that British steel workers would likely support a form of Chinese-style intervention as part of an industrial strategy to reinvigorate the prospects for British steel.</p>
<h2>Review</h2>
<p><strong>Ray Hudson, Professor of Geography at Durham University</strong></p>
<p>The author is absolutely right that the issue of dumping is political and ideological, not simply technical and legal. At issue is the conceptualisation of dumping – does it relate to selling below production costs or below market prices? </p>
<p>In this article, the definition of dumping as <em>“keeping costs artificially low so that other producers cannot compete”</em> raises the thorny question of what a “natural” production cost would be and how it would be defined. The other option, to define dumping as <em>“when a country’s average export price over time is less than a reasonable price for the same product when sold at home”</em>, rests on the nebulous definition of “reasonable”.</p>
<p>Markets are always political constructions, so there is no natural market price to use as a reference point. Countries and companies always have strategies in mind for product pricing. So when this piece arrives at the conclusion that China is indeed dumping steel, we should consider whether Beijing (or Tehran, or Moscow…) is simply setting steel prices at a level which harries the competition and drives trade its way, much like major capitalist enterprises do the world over when they seek to compete and enhance market share.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76916/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Politicians in Europe, the US and the UK have blamed steel industry woes on artificially cheap imports.Ian Greenwood, Associate Professor in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/788772017-06-07T01:33:19Z2017-06-07T01:33:19ZPittsburgh: A city of two post-industrial tales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172539/original/file-20170606-3674-1b0tnua.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Pittsburgh, between its industrial past and a clean, green tech-driven future.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ADowntown_Pittsburgh_from_Duquesne_Incline_in_the_morning.jpg">Dllu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump’s <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/01/politics/trump-paris-climate-decision/index.html">mention of Pittsburgh</a> in his announcement withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate evoked <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">the city’s past as an industrial powerhouse</a>. It sparked <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/335994-pittsburgh-mayor-fires-back-at-trump-my-city-will-follow-paris">a furious set of tweets from Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto</a>, who promised his city would work to fight climate change. Trump’s statement also drew strong support from local Republican lawmakers who portrayed themselves as <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2017/06/02/donald-Trump-pittsburgh-paris-climate-agreement-environmentalists/stories/201706020115">standing with “Western Pennsylvania manufacturers, boilermakers, power plant workers … and miners.”</a></p>
<p>The president’s words seem fitting for an administration taking great pains to symbolically and literally <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/us/politics/trump-overturning-regulations.html">roll back the achievements of its predecessor</a>. In 2009, the Obama administration chose Pittsburgh as the site for the <a href="http://www.g20.pitt.edu/">U.S.-hosted summit of the G-20</a>, a group of governments and central bankers from <a href="https://www.g20.org">20 major world economies</a>. The meeting was in a downtown facility that was the world’s first and largest <a href="http://www.usgbc.org/projects/david-l-lawrence-convention-center-1">Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified convention center</a>. Positive media coverage poured in from around the world, showcasing Pittsburgh’s “<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/pittsburgh-green-idUSN1827474520090920?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=10522">green economy</a>” rebirth as a center of clean technology and innovation.</p>
<p>The city took a hard hit in the 1980s <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">when corporate and government policies, global economic forces and new technologies</a> resulted in southwestern Pennsylvania’s permanent loss of <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/06/03/what-donald-trump-doesnt-get-about-pittsburgh-215223">more than 150,000 manufacturing jobs and 176,000 residents</a>. In the decades since, Pittsburgh has used its considerable economic, institutional and political resources to reinvent itself as a center of education, innovation and health care. From 2010 to 2015, <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/metro-monitor-2017/">worker productivity shot up 10 percent</a>, average annual wages increased 9 percent and the overall standard of living rose 13 percent in the region.</p>
<p>But the former Steel City’s success has proven to be uneven across racial and class lines. The recovery has also proven difficult to replicate in the former mill towns and outlying rural mining areas that once provided the raw materials upon which its fortunes were made. In my book, “<a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15414.html">Beyond Rust: Metropolitan Pittsburgh and the Fate of Industrial America</a>,” I take readers on two tours of the region that shed light on the divided responses to Trump’s opposition to the global climate accord.</p>
<h2>The promise of transformation</h2>
<p>On the first tour in my book, we view the history of Pittsburgh through a lens similar to that used by longtime city mayor Richard Caliguiri, who served from 1977 to 1988. For him, for development officials, and for many of the residents employed outside traditional industries, Rust Belt imagery rooted in the dirty, blue-collar mill towns was a barrier to recruiting talent and attracting new businesses.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15414.html">Caliguiri envisioned the city resurrected</a> as a “service and retailing center, a center for health care, a city of transplants, a city of High Technology, a city of Robotics, of computer programming.” Supported by both public and private funds, the business-backed <a href="http://www.alleghenyconference.org/">Allegheny Conference on Community Development</a>, elected officials and leaders of <a href="https://www.cmu.edu/">Carnegie Mellon University</a> and the <a href="https://www.pitt.edu/">University of Pittsburgh</a> set the stage for the “<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/pittsburgh/news/2017/04/13/pittsburgh-housing-buoyed-by-eds-and-meds-study.html">eds and meds</a>” economy for which the city is known today. </p>
<p>Rivers that had served as industrial canals and sewers for more than a century were clean enough to enjoy, helping encourage environmental stewardship. Campaigns to <a href="http://www.pittsburghmagazine.com/Pittsburgh-Magazine/March-2016/The-Next-Hot-Hoods-in-Pittsburgh/index.php?cparticle=7&fb_comment_id=962531840463045_976087639107465&siarticle=6#f3dee768675acd6">reuse industrial age buildings</a> and to <a href="https://www.railstotrails.org/trailblog/2017/april/07/pennsylvania-s-three-rivers-heritage-trail/">repurpose railroad corridors</a> as riverfront recreational trails further helped cement Pittsburgh’s new post-industrial identity. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=491&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172541/original/file-20170606-3662-4jz9iv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=617&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An aerial view of Summerset at Frick Park, a residential area built on an old slag heap.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASummerset_at_Frick_Park_aerial_view.jpg">Lyndasw</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tour in my book takes readers through suburban research campuses, office buildings and residential areas that would not be out of place in other prosperous parts of the nation. Entering the city proper, triumphant symbols of economic and environmental transformation are everywhere; among the examples are <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/life/homes/2015/11/05/Buying-Here-Summerset-townhouse-offers-open-floor-plan-views-of-the-Monongahela-River/stories/201511050150">Summerset at Frick Park</a>, a new urbanist residential area erected on top of a reclaimed slag pile, and the <a href="http://pittsburghpa.gov/dcp/zoning/spds/pittsburgh-technology-center">Pittsburgh Technology Center</a>, built by a public-private consortium on the former site of an enormous riverfront mill. The <a href="http://phlf.org/2008/06/13/hot-metal-bridge-lighted/">Hot Metal Bridge</a>, which once carried molten iron across the Monongahela River, now gives students and workers a healthy and eco-friendly route to walk or bike from the university center of Oakland to the hip neighborhoods of the city’s South Side.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172569/original/file-20170606-3668-1810m2m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From the Hot Metal Bridge pedestrian walkway, the offices of the American Eagle Outfitters clothing chain are visible in the background, part of a mixed-use development built on the site of a former steel mill.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHot_Metal_Bridge_pedestrian_walkway_facing_southwest.jpg">Dllu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If the tour was limited to these neighborhoods, the Pittsburgh revitalization might seem an unqualified success.</p>
<h2>Sticking with tradition</h2>
<p>Forty miles upstream, however, my book’s second tour heads to the deindustrialized communities of Charleroi, Monessen and Donora. The population is dwindling, and those who remain <a href="http://triblive.com/news/editorspicks/7470396-74/donora-town-didonato">continue to struggle</a> with high poverty and unemployment rates. Gravel and rock piles and a loading dock on the Monongahela’s western bank share the panorama with the hulking mass of the Speers Railroad Bridge. While a little rusty, this span still carries the <a href="http://www.wlerwy.com/">Wheeling and Lake Erie Railway</a> as it transports freight to and from five different mills and those employees fortunate enough to still work in them.</p>
<p>Many residents came to value the Steel City’s improving rivers, cleaner skies and scenic woodlands. And yet, in 1985, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1985/08/13/union-leaders-tour-rusted-mon-valley/ce04e5ea-807e-4e34-b1df-5cbf6ed7ec8c/">AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland announced</a>, “Pittsburgh looks beautiful. But I’d like to see it a little dirtier, a little more smoke. The most environmentally offensive thing I see is the shut-down mills.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/172543/original/file-20170606-3698-12yaobx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The rusting hulk of the Carrie Furnace, a remnant of an industrial past now being reborn as a museum and mixed-use development site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brookward/33689164662/">brookward/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>From this perspective, the post-industrial reinvention of the region offered only low-paid service work or the hazy idea of job retraining. What good were pretty views and playgrounds for white-collar workers without a solution to the loss of unionized, family-wage blue-collar jobs?</p>
<p>As a result, for many people in the region, the real excitement over the past few years has bubbled up from the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2014/article/the-marcellus-shale-gas-boom-in-pennsylvania.htm">new “blue” jobs in oil and gas extraction</a>. The invention of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/03/the_rise_and_fall_and_rise_of.html">unlocked massive natural gas reserves</a> in the region’s Marcellus and Utica shale formations.</p>
<p>The number of <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/drilling/">active wells</a> in southwestern Pennsylvania quadrupled from 2008 to 2012. The fracking boom prompted a <a href="http://pittsburghquarterly.com/pq-commerce/pq-energy/item/34-an-industrial-renaissance.html">renaissance of reindustrialization</a> with opportunities for jobs in the energy, chemical and metals sectors. But, a fracking downturn beginning in 2015 caused economic anxieties to rush back to the surface. Many locals worried that their financial recovery was threatened by global economic forces beyond their control or, more sinisterly, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/nov/19/climate-change-is-single-biggest-threat-to-polar-bear-survival">environmental activists</a> accused of <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/312780-polar-bears-over-people-environmentalism-over">favoring polar bears above people</a>.</p>
<p>As president, Obama made multiple trips to the city of Pittsburgh, touting its economic reinvention – including that G-20 conference in 2009. But neither he nor Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign ever found their way to these old bastions of the Democratic Party. Trump did. In June 2016, he arrived in Monessen to acknowledge the “very, very tough times” and assure residents he would “<a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/06/28/trump-policy-speech-monessen/">make it better fast</a>.”</p>
<p>For those left out of the promise of a post-industrial Pittsburgh reborn through environmental stewardship and a high-tech economy, Trump’s simplistic but powerful message of reindustrialization, economic protectionism and environmental deregulation often resonates with their own lives and dreams for the future. That may even have <a href="http://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2016/11/09/westmoreland-countys-turnout-helped-trump-win-pennsylvania/">helped him win Westmoreland County</a>, just east of Pittsburgh. But it remains unclear how the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement will actually serve to make their lives materially better. At the least, it reminds those of us who have navigated the winds of economic change successfully of the consequences for ignoring the needs of those struggling to find a safe harbor.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78877/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Allen Dieterich-Ward does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Pittsburgh’s post-industrial economic resurgence is promising, a historian of the region writes, but there’s a reason President Trump highlighted the area in his speech exiting the Paris climate deal.Allen Dieterich-Ward, Associate Professor of History, Shippensburg UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/712582017-01-17T17:10:26Z2017-01-17T17:10:26ZThe British steel crisis did more good than harm to the industry<p>In January 2016, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-35337896">more than 1,000 UK job losses</a> were announced at steel giant Tata, most of which were to be made at the Port Talbot plant in south Wales. What followed was a year of <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-british-steel-industry-beyond-repair-54617">gloomy headlines</a>, <a href="http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3514797/Are-witnessing-end-British-steel-explain-happening-why.html">speculation and no real answers</a> as to what would happen to the industry in Britain. Some thought that it would be the end of Tata’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/11/28/tata-sell-yorkshire-steel-plants-deal-safeguarding-1700-jobs/">steel presence in the country</a> – and the British industry as a whole – but this couldn’t have been further from the truth.</p>
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<p>Steel is a <a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-news/steelisa21stcenturyindustry-swansearesearchontomorrowstechnologies.php">21st-century industry</a>. It is essential for so many of the products that we use: buildings and transport, coins and cans.</p>
<p>It’s the basis for tomorrow’s technologies: at Swansea University we’ve just <a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/campus-development/phase2-current/keyprojects/activeclassroom/">designed and built</a> the UK’s first <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDRJQiW7sc">energy-positive classroom</a>, which can generate its own heat and electrical power, and run off-grid. It’s made from new steel products which trap the sun’s energy and release it when required. We’re also testing new forms of steel, strengthened by tiny nano-structures, which make cars lighter and reduce emissions. </p>
<p>UK-wide, <a href="http://www.issb.co.uk/news/news/uk.html">demand for steel remains strong</a> and it’s likely to stay that way, given that steel is a foundation industry, the base of the whole manufacturing chain, and essential for <a href="http://www.cityam.com/255570/government-publishes-steel-requirements-between-now-and">major infrastructure projects</a> such as HS2, Crossrail and Swansea’s tidal lagoon. </p>
<h2>Innovation</h2>
<p>Rather than dwell on bad news, Tata and the unions have been looking forward too. A <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/12/07/tata-unions-edge-towards-port-talbot-rescue-deal/">£1 billion, ten-year investment plan</a> has been announced for the Port Talbot hub, with additional activity in other UK plants too. I’ve worked in the steel industry for 20 years, and this is the first long-term strategic plan of this kind that I can remember.</p>
<p>Tata is no beginner when it comes to long-term commitments. This is the company that turned Jaguar Land Rover <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/10310725/Jaguar-Land-Rover-1.3bn-Tata-gamble-pays-off-as-big-cat-purrs-at-last.html">into a flourishing brand</a> thanks to sustained and significant investment. As with Jaguar, success for the steel industry depends on promoting a can-do culture in the company, and continued strong links between industry and universities, fostering innovation.</p>
<p>Indeed, if we look to successful steel industries overseas, others have shown that research and innovation facilities must be <a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-news/uksteelindustrycanflourishbutonlyifgovernmentmakesrightdecisions-report.php">close to manufacturing plants</a>, both in proximity and working relationship. From our campus in Swansea, it’s only a few miles to the Port Talbot works and we have worked hard to build excellent interactions with its sister plants. </p>
<p>This closeness has already delivered innovation: we’re currently developing steel-based construction materials which mean buildings can generate, store and release their own power. Researchers have also devised a <a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-news/asmartersaferwaytoreducecorrosionawardforswanseasteelexperts.php">safer, smarter way to tackle corrosion</a> and improved the efficiency of Port Talbot’s blast furnaces. But still much more can done.</p>
<p>The future for steel lies in high value products like these, but that is not to say that all jobs will be the same as they are now, or that all sites will be used for the same purpose down the line. The Port Talbot works could <a href="http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/steel/story-29690640-detail/story.html">flourish as a vast recycling site</a>, for example. After all, steel can be recycled, almost infinitely; the familiar chimneys and the gases they emit could become an energy source to power the plant, the community and much else besides.</p>
<h2>Commitment</h2>
<p>So there is much to be positive about but success is not guaranteed. Yes, the steel industry needs more creative thinking to survive, but the government must commit to supporting it. </p>
<p>There have been some moves in this area already. Responding to the fact that Tata’s sites generate some <a href="http://business.cardiff.ac.uk/sites/default/files/wer/23.pdf">3% of Wales’s economic output</a>, the Welsh government has recently outlined plans to base a steel innovation centre in Swansea, along with a <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/business-news/welsh-government-announces-8m-investment-12293258">£12m investment for the Port Talbot site</a>.</p>
<p>Fantastic for Wales and yet more can still be done by the UK government to ensure that steel becomes a success story for Britain. Crucially, it’s about creating the <a href="http://www.swansea.ac.uk/media-centre/latest-news/uksteelindustrycanflourishbutonlyifgovernmentmakesrightdecisions-report.php">right conditions</a>.</p>
<p>We know that devising and committing to a long term strategic plan for the whole country’s steel industry, along with encouraging research, innovation and development, is imperative. But the government must also ensure that – come what may – Port Talbot’s primary steelmaking plant, and its downstream units, are retained as a whole.</p>
<p>Furthermore, it needs to look at cutting the industry’s biggest costs, energy and business rates. It’s one of the easiest ways to introduce cost savings. And use its own procurement power to encourage the construction sector to adopt low-carbon steel-based technologies for projects supported by public money.</p>
<p>There are real opportunities here. A new, very modern steel industry, focused on high-value products, can help renew our infrastructure and build a low-carbon future. And if we get the model right, it can be exported to other countries.</p>
<p>As a global company with numerous product developments, Tata is in a position to generate the major investment needed to support any long-term plan and it would be foolish to ignore this. Its relationship with India could also prove strategically vital too – especially if/when the UK leaves the EU – as India is on course to become the world’s biggest economy.</p>
<p>We have survived the immediate crisis. We have a solid foundation. And we have the people and the partnerships. With support from government, and a relentless focus on innovation, steel can rise again to become a great British success story.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/71258/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Worsley has received substantial research grants funding a portfolio linked to the steel and metals sector, particularly around smart materials for construction. He is a member of the Institute of Materials and Royal Society of Chemistry.</span></em></p>Forget the sunset pictures that accompanied so much media coverage of the steel crisis. Steel is an industry of the future, not the past.David Worsley, Research Director of Engineering, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/697842016-12-02T06:21:02Z2016-12-02T06:21:02ZABCC amended local content rules will help Australian steelmakers compete against low-quality imports<p>Senator Xenophon deserves a Christmas card from the nation’s steelmakers, after his negotiation with the government to deliver their Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC) legislation. The deal saw significant changes made to government procurement rules.</p>
<p>The changes require that companies bidding for government projects worth more than A$4 million <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5129">will need to outline</a> in their bid:</p>
<ul>
<li>how much locally-produced material is included</li>
<li>how their proposal would contribute to local employment</li>
<li>how their proposal would grow local skills</li>
<li>the whole-of-life cost of the project</li>
<li>that the materials used comply with Australian product standards.</li>
</ul>
<p>These new requirements should work in favour of local steel producers not only because of the emphasis on local content but because of the clauses around standards and whole of life costs.</p>
<p>Creating high quality steel isn’t easy and high quality isn’t uniform through the international industry. For many grades of steel, ensuring the steel is “clean”- which for a steelmaker means keeping non-metallic impurities (called “inclusions”) to a minimum and preventing excessive dissolution of gases into the metallic structure – is important for ensuring high quality performance and minimising unexpected cracks and failures.</p>
<p>There have been significant advances internationally over the last two or three decades in getting steel “clean”. In particular, around engineering the chemistry of steel to ensure the inclusions that are too small to remove from the steel when molten, don’t weaken the structure of the steel excessively once the steel is solid. </p>
<p>Low technology steelmakers with lowly trained workforces don’t generally aim to make high-value steels, instead aiming at lower grades of steel where such levels of control are not required. Reinforcing bar (used in concrete structures) is an example of such a product, where price and availability are the prime issues in the marketplace. The steels required for the new submarine fleet are at the opposite end of this quality control/cost continuum.</p>
<p>Local steelmakers have complained about the quality of imported Chinese steel that has <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-17/safety-warning-over-fabricated-chinese-steel/6949506">recently flooded the local market</a> and there is lots anecdotal evidence to support these claims, though it must be acknowledged that it’s difficult to find an objective study of the problem. Not all Chinese steel is low quality, as there are clearly many advanced and high tech steel producers in that country.</p>
<p>This new requirement around quality means the onus will be on the company bidding to demonstrate that steel being used meets appropriate standards. In simple terms, if Australian companies like Arrium and Bluescope can make good quality steel locally, this clause should place their product ahead in the bidding process. This is compared to any company (Australian or otherwise) that costs their projects based on using cheap steel that is being dumped. </p>
<p>This clause also puts pressure on Australian steel companies to maintain high standards of quality, as a means of distinguishing themselves in the market. Which sends the right message to an industry that will need to focus on quality if it wants to have a successful future.</p>
<p>The whole of life clause could also work in favour of steel producers, depending on how this requirement is interpreted. In general, steel has much lower environmental impact in its production compared to other materials. For example, the production of one tonne of steel results in about <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652606002320">one tenth of the impact on global warming compared to the same quantity of aluminium</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/steel-and-aluminium-factsheet.pdf">Aluminium and steel also share a good record in recycling</a> compared to plastics and composites, as these materials can be recycled many times, where as plastics and composites are often degraded in the recycling process. Several classes of these materials do not have a recognised recycling route <a href="https://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/cua_plastic_recycling_fact_sheet.pdf">and end up as land fill</a>.</p>
<p>These materials look attractive compared to steel, in terms of environmental impact when their lightweight properties are used to save fuel, such as the case of transport. But for large structural projects (as associated with government tenders), the whole of life analysis is likely to favour steel over other materials because of the lower environmental impact and high recyclability, combined with strength and durability.</p>
<p>These more recent changes to the procurement rules are good for the long-term future of steel production in this country.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geoffrey Brooks has previously received funding from OneSteel for research into fundamental aspects of steelmaking and supervises students projects associated with OneSteel. He is actively involved in the Association of Iron and Steel Technology. </span></em></p>Changes to construction material requirements from negotiations on the ABCC will give Australian steelmakers a chance to step-up.Geoffrey Brooks, Professor of Engineering, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/679832016-11-10T08:17:36Z2016-11-10T08:17:36ZBritain’s needless kick in the teeth for its struggling steel mills<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/145225/original/image-20161109-19068-1pnk7zt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C105%2C1595%2C929&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/defenceimages/14419385728/in/photolist-nYc81L-9RgP8D-rPGk72-qGEHTD-L7ubS-eCD6wK-rRsy6h-rc2tyJ-s8Td3C-s6JyBs-s6Jo2E-rRrer3-s92zvV-rc2zyE-s8TgDL-wRkPLt-s6Jkwj-rRroZG-jEbTQ-s92bUx-KSMrW-rRzCmX-s8XYcR-s8Y8Gc-dhoFXW-bTV832-fjiw1U-rce5EH-aDicVL-rcdPVT-9oDaQf-rcehHv-s8w12H-ceJUmj-bXntV6-ceJUf1-eD8mav-bXntNR-ceJU77-FYapF-o79Xeo-eFSkCB-ceJUab-4p7qKp-tzj7d-GmVJV-eFSkFF-GC5BF-mYPgFy-x9hBP8">Defence Images/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It seemed like an easy win. Just as the UK wrestled with the economic fallout from the Brexit vote, the government had a chance to offer a fillip to one of the country’s struggling industries. But alongside news that work on the £41 billion fleet of Trident nuclear submarines would start at <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/10/british-steel-could-have-gone-into-trident-subs---but-the-contra/">BAE Systems in Cumbria</a>, came an announcement that France would be providing the steel. Rarely has salt been so liberally applied to an open wound.</p>
<p>Back in July, MPs voted for the renewal of Trident by a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/18/mps-vote-in-favour-of-trident-renewal-nuclear-deterrent">huge majority</a>. The debate included a lengthy discussion of the implications that voting against would have on jobs. Unions came out in <a href="http://www.unitetheunion.org/news/first-glasgow-members-support-industrial-action-ballot/unite-executive-council-statement-on-trident/">favour of renewal</a> given the thousands of jobs and the communities potentially affected in the defence industry, but also up the supply chain to industries like steel. </p>
<p>Members of a parliamentary group which looks at the steel industry explicitly addressed the potential for UK steel if it were used at a recent debate in <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/whall/?id=2016-11-03a.445.0&s=steel+industry#g492.0">Westminster Hall</a>. This came after an earlier statement from Prime Minister Theresa May, during which she assured MPs that it would be used where it presented <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2016-07-18b.566.2">“good value”</a>. Senior officials from the steelworkers’ union, Community, have argued that using UK steel could have saved <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/trident-submarines-built-french-steel-8980420#ICID=sharebar_twitter">1,000 jobs</a> and helped to reopen the Scunthorpe plate mill which was mothballed in October 2015. </p>
<p>The only glimmer of hope has come from <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/08/why-britain---and-bae-systems---must-make-a-success-of-the-41bn/">Ministry of Defence statements</a> claiming that British steel will be used in later stages of the Trident programme</p>
<h2>Pedal to the metal</h2>
<p>There have been some positive developments in the steel industry. Investment firm Greybull Capital acquired the Scunthorpe plant and launched under the name British Steel <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/jun/01/tata-steel-sale-to-greybull-saving-jobs-and-bringing-back-british-steel">in June this year</a>. UK based steel product group Liberty House <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-37486003">reopened the Dalzell plant</a> in Lanarkshire at the end of September, saving a number of the jobs initially affected. In truth, though, the UK steel industry has been in crisis since mid-2015, when Tata Steel announced 720 job losses at their Rotherham plant. Since then, capacity has been taken out and thousands of jobs have been cut along with the closure of the SSI plant in Teeside. </p>
<p>Of course, this reflects a longer trend of employment contraction in the UK steel industry since the 1980s, and following privatisation in 1988. More pressure was clearly piled on by the 2008 financial crisis. Since then, the industry has desperately sought support from the government to address issues such as Chinese dumping of cheap steel, and high energy prices and business rates compared to European rivals. </p>
<p>A coalition of MPs, unions and industry bodies has sought to address the growing crisis with a <a href="http://www.eef.org.uk/uksteel/Representing-our-sector/briefings/uk-steel-action-still-required-of-government.htm">demand for five urgent actions from government</a>. These involved action on anti-dumping, blocking moves to give China <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/572f435e-0784-11e6-9b51-0fb5e65703ce">the status to avoid tariffs on exports</a>, a level playing field on business rates, R&D investment into the sector, and environmental improvements. The <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201516/cmselect/cmbis/546/546.pdf">government also recommended</a> that the National Infrastructure Commission looks closely at procurement of British steel in major domestic construction projects. </p>
<p>Past procurement issues have been highlighted in debates, such as the use of foreign steel for the new Forth Bridge in Scotland and in wind turbine blades. This was characterised as a missed opportunity to support the UK steel industry, and safeguard jobs and related communities. And it isn’t like it can’t happen. The recent award of the steel contract for Hinkley Point nuclear plant to Welsh firm Celsa Steel demonstrates that commitments to local procurement can be achieved.</p>
<p>As parliament wrestled with the UK steel crisis, it was difficult, if not impossible, to find an MP not in agreement with the strategic importance of the industry. Government even championed these new procurement rules whereby decisions must take into consideration the potential impacts on society, jobs and staff safety in the development of major construction projects involving steel.</p>
<p>Specific procurement guidelines now “encourage” government departments to take into account the social impact of competing suppliers. The <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-1615-procuring-steel-in-major-projects">policy</a> seems to already be broken. Trident only illustrates that it needs to become mandatory. The main industry body, UK Steel, is urging Greg Clark, the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to move in this direction.</p>
<h2>Skill sets</h2>
<p>BAE Systems has claimed the French steel represents 0.5% of the whole value of the Trident project, but this still equates to roughly £150m of missed business. While the specific costs and benefits cannot be precisely determined, the steel industry is of national significance. Geographically skewed to industrial areas of the country such as Wales, the Midlands, Yorkshire and the North East, it is responsible for the retention of relatively high-paid, high-skill jobs in areas that are deindustrialising. </p>
<p>When steel plants close or cut capacity, those workers exit employment or are reemployed in lower skilled, lower paid jobs. Economic demand is sucked out of an area and its skill base denuded. The prospect of an economic rebalancing around low pay, low skill, and low value added becomes very real. It has been <a href="http://www.ippr.org/news-and-media/press-releases/lost-jobs-from-steel-crisis-could-cost-uk-government-4-6bn">estimated</a> that typically for every steel worker made redundant, the exchequer loses £10,000 of revenue and welfare costs increase by £10,000. This is in no one’s interest. </p>
<p>As controversial as the Trident project is in many quarters, if it is to go ahead then the decision not to award the contracts for steel to UK producers is bewildering. It seems to reflect an enduring belief in the ability of an unfettered market not to fail. Meaningful industrial strategy requires intervention. If Greg Clark wants credibility for himself and his department, public contracts need to be revisited, procurement protocols made mandatory and an assurance given that a decision such as that around Trident will not be repeated. The history of the European steel industry is one of continual state intervention: nothing has changed other than the economic precipice on which the UK steel industry now finds itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/67983/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An industry in crisis needs a government that can deliver help where it’s needed.Chris McLachlan, Senior Lecturer Human Resources, University of HertfordshireIan Greenwood, Associate Professor in Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.