UK Steel - Submission to the Business and Trade Select Committee's Inquiry on Industrial Policy

January 2024

Steelmaking does not only underpin growth, economic resilience, and decarbonisation, but in the UK we are also in a position to capitalise on the critical resources necessary to lead the way in green steel production: scrap, renewable energy, and innovation excellence.

The UK is in a prime position to lead the world on Net Zero steel and grow the green economy by tapping into its strengths and resources. Not only is the UK already leading the way on renewable energy and boasting world-class research and innovation, but it also has abundant access to a critical resource - steel scrap - as mentioned above, which has a central role to play in the steel sector’s decarbonisation journey. In addition to the obvious widespread economic and environmental benefits of steelmaking in the UK, access to a key raw material further enhances the business case for UK steel production as we transition to increasingly electric scrap-based processes.

Steel is central to any ambition to decarbonise the UK economy – meaningful decarbonisation, not through deindustrialisation and offshoring emissions, but by actually taking responsibility for the emissions of our steel consumption. With its infinite recyclability, steel is an essential component of a circular economy, generating thousands of green jobs and powering the decarbonisation of other sectors too. It is used in every single technology that a green economy relies on, from wind turbines and solar panels to electric vehicles and hydrogen infrastructure.