Tata and Britain’s steelmakers are not just facing a glut of Chinese product: they also struggle with a cocktail of domestic problems that disappear back decadesThe crisis in the UK steel industry has deep roots. Globalisation and the opening-up of world markets; a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing,creating massive over-capacity in its steel plants; a subsequent boom in cheap Chinese exports and a collapse in the global steel price. Those pressures contain become intense since 2012: but the story of steel in the UK has also been one of a 40-year decline in output and employment. In the early 1970s, the UK industry was producing almost 29m tonnes and employing 325000 people; by final year, and the figures were 12.5m tonnes and 30000 people.
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Source: theguardian.com