Tata chief urges UK ministers to safeguard domestic steel market

Mr Nair yesterday called on the UK Government to design new quota systems in a similar way to the EU to safeguard steel by banishing imports, “to ensure we have a level-playing field”.

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(Skanska UK plc)

He said: “Yes, you could look at it as an existential crisis or you could look at it as an opportunity to make a difference and I think the conversations that are happening today are ‘How can we convert this into something that would work for the UK?”

Mr Nair warned trade wars and protectionism in steel have become the norm, “so we've got to find our own ways of managing the domestic market”.

He told Senedd members: “The UK quotas are significantly disproportionate. These quotas were set up, particularly in flat steel - in which south Wales is really a significant player - in 2017/18 when the demand was nearly 30% higher than what it is today.

“The demand has declined, the quotas have remained where they are. The quotas in genera are 70% to up to 140% of the demand in some product categories.”

Mr Nair contrasted this with EU quotas of between 15% and 30% of demand before the latest announcement which will see levels reduce further.

He said: “The key thing is the trade situation is becoming more and more difficult, and things are moving pretty fast, so one of the expectations is that we need to bring pace into it.

“But I'm reasonably confident that the government will also look to do things very similar to what the EU has done.

“On one hand to protect the UK domestic market and, on the other hand, to work with the EU to ensure we have the right trading interests between the two.”

The EU is the UK's largest steel export market, worth nearly £3bn.

The new plans were set out following pressure from some member states which have struggled to compete with cheap imports from countries such as China.

Appearing before the Senedd's economy committee, Mr Nair called for clarity on how the EU announcement will work and apply to different categories of products.