Britain: An official handbook > 1977

224
METAL
MANUFACTURE
Iron and Steel
Iron Castings
BRITAIN 1977: AN OFFICIAL HANDBOOK
In the following sections, relating to individual branches of industry in 1975,
employment statistics refer to numbers in Great Britain at June 1975) sales and
output figures are taken from the latest avadable Business Monitor and export
figures from the Overseas Trade Statistics. Unless otherwise stated, export and
manufacturers’ sales figures include parts.
Some sales figures are given in metric terms, where statistics for an industry
are normally published in this form. Conversion tables can be found on p. 45®*
Metal manufacture
iron and steel products
iron castings
non-ferrous base metals
(excluding alloys)
Employment Production Exports
’000s million tonnes £ million
500-8 54-5 864-2
299-9 50-6 691-0
84-0 3-0 6-2
116-9 1-0 167-0
Most of the early developments in iron and steel production originated in
Britain, today the world’s seventh largest steel-producing nation. The Iron and
Steel Act 1967 brought together into public ownership 14 major steel companies
and created the British Steel Corporation (BSC). BSC currently produces over
85 per cent of Britain’s crude steel. It employs some 220,000 people, of which
180,500 are involved in iron and steel manufacturing and 39,500 in other
activities, such as foundries, construction and chemicals. The remaining private
sector companies are represented by the British Independent Steel Producers
Association. The private sector, which employs some 115,500 people, accounts
for over one-third of the value of the industry’s turnover and is particularly
strong in the manufacture of alloy and stainless steels and of finished products
for the engineering industry. The main steel producing areas are Yorkshire and
Humberside (32 per cent of crude steel output in 1975)) Wales (27 per cent),
the Northern region (17 per cent), Scotland (10 per cent) and the West Midlands
(8 per cent). .
BSC is currently implementing a ten-year development strategy, adopted in
1973, which is designed to modernise and expand the corporation s production
capacity. A major feature of the strategy is the replacement of open-hearth
steelmaking by basic oxygen steelmaking (for bulk production) and the
electric arc process (for more specialised tasks). Over the period to 1982-83,
BSC plans to concentrate its bulk steelmaking at five mam sites which have
good access to deep water for iron ore imports. Since 1974 the Government,
BSC and the trade unions have been engaged in a joint review of the plant
closures implied in this strategy; decisions on most of the plants concerned
have now been announced. Schemes for new investment to a value of over £$00
million have been confirmed in the course of this review of closures. Steel
production in Britain is closely linked with international developments and
world demand and is very responsive to changes in the economic situation.
About four-fifths of production is used by home industry and the remainder
for direct export. The major export markets for steel are the rest of the European
Community, the United States and Sweden. A large part of the steel used by
industry in Britain is also subsequently exported as part of other finished
products.
In the production of iron castings, a few large firms are responsible for more
than a quarter of total output while fewer, more highly developed units are
replacing the numerous small foundries. The main users of iron castings are