There is a 'need to improve the business environment' in the UK so that domestic production buy more Welsh steel for construction, says Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.
Welsh steel is expected to account for around half (50%) of the UK's total steelmaking capacity and future production.
That figure is a lot less compared to other European countries and the Government believes that ‘there are gaps in the market’.
In a debate in Westminster Monmouthshire MP Catherine Fookes asked the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, Jonathan Reynolds, what the Government are doing to ensure that the UK are buying more Welsh Steel.
Mrs Fookes said: “I thank the Secretary of State for his support for domestic steelmaking. People do not often think of Monmouthshire as a steelmaking community, but we have excellent downstream steelmaking companies and hundreds of workers going every day to Llanwern, in the constituency of my hon. Friend the Member for Newport East (Jessica Morden).
“Will the Secretary of State share what the Government are doing to support downstream steel and to ensure that we are buying more Welsh steel in all UK projects and construction that are undertaken?”
Mr Reynolds replied: “The quality of the downstream products we create in the UK, particularly in Wales, is well known, but there are gaps in the market. I often compare the level of domestic consumption in most European countries to where we are with domestic production in the UK, and there are clearly gaps in that market.
“That has always been about the need to improve the business environment, so that the sector can work constructively with the Government to provide the public-private capex solutions that we have seen a lot of across Europe but have not seen many of in the UK. I am grateful to my hon. Friend and to all colleagues who make the case for what is, I believe, a business and a sector fundamentally important to the UK.”
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