Tag: NEASS

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.