Britain on Saturday asked China to hurry up in tackling overcapacity in its steel industry, hoping to stem the flood of cheap imports into Europe which India’s Tata Steel Ltd has blamed for its decision to pull out of the UK, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.
Tata put its entire UK business up for sale last month, including its flagship production plant at Port Talbot in south Wales, saying it could no longer endure mounting losses caused by increased imports to Europe from countries such as China, high manufacturing costs and domestic market weakness.
“I urged China to accelerate its efforts to reduce levels of steel production,” British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said in a statement issued after he met with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi (王毅), in Beijing.
“The UK’s focus is on finding a long-term sustainable future for steelmaking at Port Talbot and across the UK and I welcomed the potential interest of Chinese companies in investment in UK steelmaking,” Hammond said.
The global steel industry is suffering from overcapacity as a slowdown in growth in the Chinese economy has reduced domestic demand.
China, which produces half of the world’s steel, as well as Russia have responded by diverting more of their output to markets like Europe, sending prices plummeting.
The EU opened three anti-dumping investigations into Chinese steel products in February and imposed new duties on imports after the European steel industry said thousands of jobs were at stake.
China said earlier on Saturday that plans to shut steel mills over the next five years would cut capacity to an estimated 1.13 billion tonnes by 2020, which is still far in excess of the country’s needs.
A statement released by Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs about Wang’s meeting with Hammond made no mention of the steel issue.
Separately, Tata Steel on Saturday said that Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is investigating a lapse in procedures at its steel-making site in Yorkshire, as the group seeks to sell its UK operations.
In a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange, Tata confirmed media reports of an SFO probe, saying it notified fraud investigators after discovering the problems last year.
“During an internal audit conducted by the company, certain inappropriate testing and certification procedures at the South Yorkshire-based Speciality Steels business were identified,” Tata said in the filing, signed by company secretary Parvatheesam Kanchinadham.
Tata did not specify the issues, but the UK’s Daily Telegraph said police were probing allegations staff may have falsified certificates detailing the composition of its steel before sale.
Tata said that after discovering the problems it immediately stopped the improper practices, alerted more than 600 direct and indirect customers and notified bodies including the SFO, which has opened a criminal investigation.
Additional reporting by AFP
SHARES DOWN: The top 10 companies all decreased in market value last year, due to COVID-19, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising interest rates and global inflation Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) retained the top spot among the largest companies in the Asian supply chain in terms of market capitalization, Digitimes Research said. Citing its Asia Supply Chain Market Cap 100 rankings for last year, the research firm last week said TSMC’s market cap was US$378.45 billion, the highest among Asian suppliers, although it dropped by nearly US$200 billion during the year. The 34.3 percent fall in TSMC’s market cap was the largest decline of any company in the survey last year, but was typical of how many top-ranking companies fared. The top 10 in Digitimes’ rankings all saw
Sex worker Nina relies on an apartment in the Turkish city of Istanbul as a relatively safe space to meet clients, but the 29-year-old is worried about making enough to cover the rent after the landlord doubled the price. As a surge in inflation fuels a housing crisis in Turkey, LGBTQ+ sex workers like Nina say landlords are forcing them to accept huge rent hikes for fear of being evicted. Nina, who uses the pronouns they and them, worries about how they will pay the increased monthly rent of 8,000 Turkish lira (US$425.11) on top of rising bills. “There are gas, electricity, water,
Singapore is seeing an influx of ultra-wealthy families from China looking to protect their wealth from a government that increasingly views them with suspicion. The Chinese Communist Party’s recent crackdowns on tech billionaires and tax-shy celebrities, as well as three years of “zero COVID” policies, have led many rich Chinese to look for a safe haven. Nervous over the fate of their fortunes, some of the country’s mega-rich have since booked tickets to Singapore, insiders said. The key Asian financial hub ticks all the boxes for relocating tycoons. Singapore has been ruled by one party for the past six decades, and labor strikes and
Samsung Electronics Co has begun making its fold and flip smartphones as well as its latest Galaxy S23 flagship in India, renewing its focus on a key growth market where Chinese devices have eaten into its sales. The South Korean giant’s Indian unit previously imported some of its premium flip and fold devices into the world’s second-biggest smartphone market, but it is now assembling its entire phone portfolio locally, said Raju Pullan, the head of Samsung’s Indian mobile business. “That also builds on our strong commitment to growing the India market,” Pullan said yesterday, declining to comment on whether the locally assembled
RSS