British_steel

British Steel company logo (1966-)

This article is about the company. For the Judas Priest album, see British Steel (album).

British Steel was a major British steel producer. It originated as a nationalised industry, the British Steel Corporation (BSC), formed in 1967. This was converted to a limited company, British Steel plc, and privatised in 1988. Following subsequent mergers, the business is now owned by Tata Steel.

Contents 1 Nationalisation 2 Change in the British steel industry 3 Privatisation 4 The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence" 5 Chairmen 6 Sponsorship 7 Incidental Information 8 See also 9 References

Nationalisation

BSC was formed from the assets of former private companies which had been nationalised, largely under the Labour Party government of Harold Wilson (1964-1970). Wilson\'s was the second attempt at nationalisation, Clement Attlee\'s Iron and Steel Corporation of Great Britain having been largely privatised by the Conservative governments of the 1950\'s. Only one steel company, Richard Thomas and Baldwins, remained in public ownership throughout.

BSC was established under the Iron and Steel Act 1967, which vested in the Corporation the shares of the fourteen major steel companies (one missing from this list):

• Colvilles Ltd
• Consett Iron Company Ltd
• Dorman Long & Company Ltd
• English Steel Corporation Ltd
• GKN Steel Company Ltd
• John Summers & Sons Ltd
• Lancashire Steel Corporation Ltd
• Richard Thomas and Baldwins Ltd
• Skinningrove Iron Company Ltd
• South Durham Steel & Iron Company Ltd
• Steel Company of Wales Ltd
• Stewarts & Lloyds Ltd
• United Steel Companies Ltd

Dorman Long, South Durham and Stewarts and Lloyds had merged as British Steel and Tube Ltd before vesting took place.

BSC later arranged an exchange deal with Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds Ltd (GKN), the parent company of GKN Steel, under which BSC acquired Dowlais Ironworks at Merthyr Tydfil and GKN took over BSC\'s Brymbo Steelworks near Wrexham.

Change in the British steel industry

The Act brought together 90 per cent of the UK\'s steelmaking to form BSC, a single business with 268,500 employees.[1]

One of the arguments aired in favour of nationalisation was that it would enable steel production to be rationalised. This involved concentrating investment on major integrated plants, placed near the coast for ease of access by sea, and closing older, smaller plants, especially those that had been located inland for proximity to coal supplies.

From the mid-1970s the (now loss-making) British Steel pursued a strategy of concentrating steelmaking in five areas: South Wales, South Yorkshire, Scunthorpe, Teesside and Scotland. This policy continued following the Conservative victory in the 1979 General Election. Other traditional steelmaking areas faced cutbacks. Under the Labour government of James Callaghan, a review by Lord Beswick had led to the reprieve of the so-called \'Beswick plants\', for social reasons, but the Conservatives adopted instead a policy of \'lame ducks to the wall\'. Major changes resulted:

• At Consett the closure of the British Steel works in 1980 marked the end of steel production in the Derwent Valley and the decline of the area.

• At Corby the early 1980s saw the loss of 11,000 jobs leading to an unemployment rate of over 30%.[2]

• In Wales, works at East Moors (Cardiff), Ebbw Vale and Shotton were closed.

• In Scotland, Western Europe\'s largest hot strip steel mill at Ravenscraig, Motherwell, North Lanarkshire was closed by British Steel in 1991, leading to huge unemployment in the area. It also led to the closure of several local support and satellite businesses, such as the nearby British Steel Clydesdale Works in Mossend, Clyde Alloy in Netherton and equipment maker Anderson Strathclyde. Demolition of the site\'s landmark blue gasometer in 1994, and the subsequent cleanup operation, has created the largest Brownfield site in Europe. This huge area between Motherwell and Wishaw is in line to be transformed into the new town of Ravenscraig, a project partly funded by Corus.

Privatisation

British Steel was privatised in 1988 under the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher. It merged with the Dutch steel producer Koninklijke Hoogovens to form Corus Group on 6 October 1999.Corus Group Webpage Corus itself was taken over in March 2007 by the Indian steel operator Tata Steel.

The Mittal Affair: "Cash for Influence"

Controversy ensued as Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price exposed the link between UK prime minister Tony Blair and steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal in the Mittal Affair, also known as \'Garbagegate\' or Cash for Influence.Plaid reveals Labour steel cash link Monday, 11 February, 2002, extracted 11-01-07Lakshmi Mittal, steel mill millionaire Thursday, 14 February, 2002, extracted 11-01-07 Q&A: \'Garbagegate\' Thursday, 14 February, 2002 extracted 11-01-07 Mittal\'s LNM steel company, registered in the Dutch Antilles and maintaining less than 1% of its 100,000 plus workforce in the UK, sought Blair\'s aid in its bid to purchase Romania\'s state steel industry. Q&A: \'Garbagegate\' Thursday, 14 February, 2002 extracted 11-01-07 The letter from Blair to the Romanian government, a copy of which Price was able to obtain, hinted that the privatisation of the firm and sale to Mittal might help smooth the way for Romania\'s entry into the European Union.Plaid reveals Labour steel cash link Monday, 11 February, 2002, extracted 11-01-07

The letter had a passage in it removed just prior to Blair\'s signing of it, describing Mittal as "a friend."Q&A: \'Garbagegate\' 14 February, 2002, extracted 11-01-07

In exchange for Blair\'s support Mittal, already a Labour contributor, donated £125,000 more to Labour party funds a week after the 2001 UK General Elections, while as many as six-thousand of Welsh steelworkers were laid off that same year, Price and others pointed out.Plaid reveals Labour steel cash link Monday, 11 February, 2002, extracted 11-01-07 Mittal\'s company, then the fourth largest in the world, was a "major global competitor of Britain\'s own struggling steel industry, Corus, formerly known as British Steel." Q&A: \'Garbagegate\' Thursday, 14 February, 2002 extracted 11-01-07 Corus and Valkia Limited were two of the primary employers in South Wales, particularly in Ebbw Vale, Llanwern, and Port Talbot.Steel firm condemns \'Mittal aid\' Monday, 18 February, 2002, 14:47 GMT extracted 11-01-07.

Chairmen

BSC\'s first chairman was Lord Melchett. A later chairman was Ian MacGregor, who would become famous for his role at British Coal and the UK miners\' strike (1984-1985). During the strike the "Battle of Orgreave" took place at British Steel\'s coking plant.

Sponsorship

In 1971, British Steel sponsored Sir Chay Blyth in his record-making non-stop circumnavigation against the winds and currents, known as \'The Impossible Voyage\'. In 1992 they sponsored the British Steel Challenge, the first of a series of \'wrong way\' races for amateur crews.

British Steel had agreed a sponsorship deal with Middlesbrough Football Club during the 1994-95 season, with a view to British Steel sponsored Middlesbrough shirts making their appearance the following season. But the sponsorship deal was terminated before it commenced after it was revealed that British steel only made up a tiny fraction of steel used in construction of the stadium - the bulk of the steel had been imported from Germany.

Incidental Information

The 1980\'s English art/punk rock band XTC has a controversial song, (We\'re Only) Making Plans for Nigel, which frequently mentions British Steel as part of the chorus or hook line.

British Steel is also the name of a 1980 album by heavy metal music band Judas Priest.

See also

• British Iron and Steel Research Association
• British Steel Corporation

References

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