
UK steel sector relatively optimistic despite challenging landscape
Market participants at the event in Leeds, North Yorkshire, on Thursday April 3, discussed the extraordinarily tough times facing the UK’s steel industry and its associated supply chains, given the global slowdown and US president Donald Trump’s trade war with the rest of the world. Yet they still found some signs of a slight upturn in the latter half of 2025 and beyond.
Here, Fastmarkets outlines the five key insights from the NEASS/NASS steel meeting:
1- Closure of Scunthorpe expected, but still a concern
Recent news of the planned closure of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, the last remaining primary steelmaking plant in the UK, was a major topic of discussion at the one-day event.
One delegate said that while the closure of Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces was not a surprise, the switch to electric-arc furnace steelmaking was essential for “British Steel and the country” as a whole.
“With British Steel, the furnace was always going to shut one day – it’s been a given for a decade, but the politicians kept kicking the can down the road,” the delegate told Fastmarkets.
But one of the speakers at the event, Shay Eddy – commercial and technical director at steel fabrication specialist SC4 – warned that the loss of the UK’s last primary steelmaking facility should not be under-estimated.
“The thought of a G7 country not having a primary steel producer [is a matter] of national security,” Eddy said. “We have to be self-sufficient as far as we can.”
According to recent reports, British Steel’s Scunthorpe site could close within days – much sooner than initially expected – with its Chinese owner, Jingye, reportedly canceling key shipments of coal and iron ore to the plant. When pressed on the matter by Fastmarkets, the company simply said “no comment.”
2- Port capacity concerns amid UK steel producer uncertainty
Delegates raised concerns about future port capacity, warning that a potential rise in semi-finished and finished steel imports, which will be crucial to meeting domestic demand if Scunthorpe closes, could put a significant strain on the UK’s port infrastructure.
“It depends on what form it takes. Semi-finished products [for rerolling] are easy-to-handle cargoes, [but] we would struggle with [finished] coil and sections,” a port sector market participant said.
“There isn’t [port] capacity… to handle the volumes [that would be required] if we lose UK [primary steel production].”
A second port industry delegate said there had been a marked increase in imported steel – largely coil supplies for Tata Steel’s Port Talbot hot strip mill in South Wales – while steel export volumes have declined.
Tata Steel has continued operating its rolling mill since closing its blast furnaces last year and the company said it plans to build an EAF at the Port Talbot site as part of a £1.25 billion ($1.62 billion) green steel investment in partnership with the British government.
While major hub ports are currently experiencing strong demand, smaller ports are reportedly handling lower volumes, according to port industry market participants at the event.
Some delegates speculated that other commodities might need to be “booted out” to make room for additional steel cargoes if Scunthorpe’s blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces are completely shut down – raising concerns about potential future bottlenecks across the UK port network.
3- Trump tariffs
Delegates were critical of Trump’s tariffs after the US imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium products entering the US on March 12, and subsequently extended that to all car imports on April 3.
A second delegate said the relationships Trump was “destroying” would “take years” to rebuild.
The latest 25% tariffs cancel out previous exemptions and quota arrangements with the UK and EU, as well as product-specific exemptions for steel not made in the US.
4- Solar remedy for sky-high energy costs?
Attendees also talked about the critical issue of “sky-high” energy costs for UK market participants, with energy prices in the UK significantly higher than in many other developed economies such as the European Union.
And the cost of electricity could become even more important to UK steelmakers whenproducers move to EAF production, which uses more electricity than the traditional blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace method.
However, the director of energy supplier Mypower Solar, Neil Stott, told delegates that solar power was a possible tool to curb production costs and reduce carbon footprints across the supply chain.
Stott said that a significant portion of annual electricity needs for a building – up to to 30-50% – could be met by installing solar panel systems on rooftops.
5- Rising demand for domestic steel scrap
The future uptick in the use of EAF-based steel production meant there would be an equal or greater increase in domestic demand for steel scrap, market participants said at the joint meeting, with feedstock for EAFs comprising of either scrap steel, direct reduced iron (DRI) or pig iron.
Around 80-90% of steel scrap is exported as Fastmarkets understands, but Tata’s plans for a 3-million-tonne-per-year EAF plant in Port Talbot set to be complete in late 2027 could lead to greater domestic demand for feedstock materials such as scrap.
One scrap metal industry participant said that conversations were taking place between government and industry players regarding ringfencing UK scrap for domestic needs in the future.
6- Small improvements expected in Q3, Q4
Despite the many challenges facing the UK steel industry, market participants expressed some optimism for the coming months, stressing that there will be “slight improvements” are expected in the second half of the year.
A third delegate spoke of positive sentiment and said market conditions would be fairly stable, while a coil market participant looked back at a challenging 2024 be was looking forward to “green shoots of recovery” later in 2025.

Ian Darby replaces Martin Maley as managing director of NASS
The National Association of Steel Service Centres (NASS) wishes to announce that Martin Maley has left the post of Director General with effect from the 28th February 2023.
I am sure that you will join with us to thank Martin for the valuable contribution he has made to the Association in his time in the position.
The Management/Executive Committee have met with a prospective replacement and are pleased to announce that Mr Ian Darby has been employed on an interim basis to the post. The committee have tasked Ian with bringing in new, and hopefully encouraging previous members to re-join the Association.
Ian has been working as the Finance Manager for NASS, and a lot of you will know his father, John Darby who worked in the same position for many years before him.
Hopefully most of you will be at the joint NASS / ISTA meeting in March at the “Hilton Garden Inn, Birmingham” where you will have the chance to meet Ian who is looking forward to introducing himself to you and to give him a chance to explain his vision for the future of NASS.
He is also very keen to hear from the members of NASS as to their ideas on how to improve the services that NASS provide.
Looking forward to meeting you all at the Hilton Garden Inn, on the 23rd March.


UK demand solid but ‘judgement day’ is coming: NASS
The National Association of steel service centers has warned the model of buying forward in a falling market cannot continue noting there is “a judgement day appearing” as we enter the new year.
While pricing has been weak throughout the year, the message in the latest annual report from director general, Peter Corfield, noted a reasonably good year for volumes.
“The maintaining of revenues by purchasing material ahead of the game in a market which has price levels on a downward spiral cannot continue, with a judgement day appearing ever closer as we approach 2016,” Corfield said.
UK demand for NASS Core Products in 2015 is expected to be circa six million metric tons; slightly down on 2014 levels but higher than any of the previous five years. Long products outperformed flats with volumes 8% above 2014 numbers. Structural Sections in particular benefited from the strong UK demand within construction, with NASS putting the volumes at 1.2 million mt. NASS members reported an 11% improvement on 2014.
Plate and profiling activity after the first 10 months of 2015 was 4% higher than last year. On the flats side hot rolled volumes were stable, cold rolled was down 15% and Hot Dipped Galvanised was 3% down.
“Whilst cost cutting exercises have been the main focus to address sustainability of steel businesses, the longer term strategies will clearly have to pursue increased added value activities and productivity measures to ensure products are processed and supplied to the marketplace as efficiently as possible,” Corfield said.
— Peter Brennan, PLATTS