CommonSpace columnist David Carr suggests that rethinking the way we use steel could help Scotland move to a ‘circular economy’
SOME years ago I took my children on a waterbus trip along the Clyde from Glasgow city centre to Braehead. It is not a picturesque excursion. Along the waterfront, mountains of scrap metal were being loaded on ships to be carried overseas for recycling.
It seems a sad commentary on Glasgow’s post-industrial present that our once thriving docks are now reduced to exporting the detritus of our consumer society. Or was I wrong? Recycling contributes to global carbon reduction. Still, it’s puzzling when Scotland is simultaneously producing its own steel.
These thoughts came back to me with recent events. Steel plant owner Tata looks set to close its remaining plants. The Scottish Government has stepped in to buy endangered Scottish plants in order to sell them on, however the UK Government has remained inactive, seemingly unwilling to help any industry that isn’t banking. An old Royal Navy phrase springs to mind: “Render them every assistance short of actually helping.”
It seems a sad commentary on Glasgow’s post-industrial present that our once thriving docks are now reduced to exporting the detritus of our consumer society.
Public commentary has focussed – quite rightly – on personal tragedies. The loss of jobs in already struggling areas will be tragic for individuals, families and whole communities. We have seen this before.
The nakedly economic reason for the impending human misery is a matter of the precarious state of the world’s markets. There was an over-supply of steel as demand collapsed. Skewed trade tariffs have allowed China to dump its surplus steel as its own slowdown has hit its domestic market. The European market could do something about this – India, Tata’s home nation, has partly mitigated its own problems – but so far hasn’t. Taking on China over tariffs is too big a problem at this time.
The world steel industry is in a mess for many reasons due to global economic fault lines. But as a trite corporate motivational saying goes, “problems are opportunities”. Is this the time to take a look at how we build a viable steel industry which meets our needs?
There is talk about steel as a ‘strategic industry’ – something for which we must secure our supply because it has implications down the supply chain – and for the wider economy and the individuals who work in it.
The world steel industry is in a mess for many reasons due to global economic fault lines. But as a trite corporate motivational saying goes, “problems are opportunities”. Is this the time to take a look at how we build a viable steel industry which meets our needs?
But that kind of thinking requires a vision – a narrative of what sort of thing we need to be doing as a nation. What do we need steel for? Where should we get it? Should these things be left to market forces? Absent of a vision, we’re left slightly foundering. What is our plan for steel manufacture during a world glut?
Journalist Paul Mason on his Mosquito Ridge blog, uses strong language – “They don’t give a shit” – for the absence of anything resembling a joined-up industrial policy from the UK Government.
“Given the nature of war, many of the things you need to fight it – like tanks, submarines and missiles – have to be made of metal,” he says. “At some point that metal has to be produced in a furnace. Furnaces use large amounts of energy. Energy is expensive because we need to wean ourselves off carbon. So energy policy, trade policy and defence policy are at odds – fundamentally because there is no industrial policy to tie them together.”
The emphasis on defence is curious. Is this what we need steel for?
The traditional linear ‘take, make, dispose’ narrative of production and consumption is being replaced by the need for a circular economy based around recycling and minimising waste.
Previously I wrote on CommonSpace of possibilities for regenerating Scotland’s maritime economy , centred around large scale, offshore renewables and associated shipping. It is not just warships and submarines that need steel. Could Scotland supply its own?
Economic thinking is changing. The traditional linear ‘take, make, dispose’ narrative of production and consumption is being replaced by the need for a circular economy based around recycling and minimising waste. The Scottish Government’s Zero Waste strategy is to help Scotland reap the environmental, economic and social benefits of making best use of the world’s limited natural resources.
In the circular economy narrative, the steel Scotland needs to build turbines and ships would be recycled – requiring less energy input – and, ideally, locally.
For raw materials – the ships I saw being loaded on that waterbus trip that day from the waterbus were registered in Cyprus. I recently discovered they were bound for Turkey, the leading regional steel recycler. Turkey has also built up a major ship dismantling industry.
In the circular economy narrative, the steel Scotland needs to build turbines and ships would be recycled – requiring less energy input – and, ideally, locally.
Scotland is rapidly building up expertise in maritime decommissioning, providing a valuable source of income and employment, particularly in the fabrication facilities at Nigg where oil platforms were previously built. There’s the raw material.
If we get it right, the steel produced would not be shipped abroad for recycling. Scottish steel plants could be converted to handle it, fuelled by renewable electricity. The steel would in turn be used to expand renewables infrastructure.
None of this will be easy. Particularly, there is still the fundamental problem of Chinese undercutting of local steel. Old ships are currently being laid up in Turkey waiting for the scrap price to rise. It is a matter of creating policy around the economic and environmental outcomes that we want to see.
Mainstay industries such as oil and steel are in crisis, affected by global economic forces. But instead of leaving their fate to the ‘invisible hand’ of the free market, the alternative is to structure our industry to match our national challenges with our assets.
The CommonSpace opinion section is an open platform for anyone who wants to voice their views and does not represent the editorial position of CommonSpace itself. If you’d like to have a piece published, email CommonSpace editor Angela Haggerty at angela@common.scot
Picture courtesy of David Carr