EU steel tariff plan sparks UK crisis
Inside Britain's last blast furnace plant in Scunthorpe the heat is real, and not just from molten metal.The European Union is pushing to double tariffs on steel imports to 50% while slashing the duty free quota nearly in half. The purported aim is to protect EU producers from global oversupply.
For the UK, the timing could not be worse. Around 80% of British Steel exports go to Europe.
The specter of yet another crisis for the 150-year-old plant has everyone in Scunthorpe worrying about the future.
It's a vital part of our community.
If the steel works shut down the economy would have closed down in the town, it would affect all businesses in the town if the Steel Works was to shut, so it's a good job that the Labour Party saved it.
Scunthorpe Member of Public 01
Once a leading global producer, the UK now accounts for 0.3% of the world's steel, lagging behind countries like France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
The biggest producer by far is China, making more than half of all steel. Some analysts see the EU tariff push as following a familiar script.
The Trump tariffs have gone up from 25% to 50% on all steel coming into the United States. That's sort of a minimum tariff.
Britain's got a special deal where we can export it at 25%. ... And that, of course, is leading to pressure on the Chinese to export elsewhere.
So they've been exporting elsewhere in Asia, but they've also been exporting, of course, to the European Union.
Keith Pilbeam, City University London
And then there is Brexit, the 2020, UK withdrawal from the EU. Scunthorpe voted for Brexit.
The Chinese steel is competitive, but not allowed in unlimited quantities into either the EU market or the UK.
Now the EU is looking at the quotas with the prime intention of affecting the Chinese, which are the biggest exporters, but drawn into those quotas will be the UK because we're not members of the EU anymore.
Yet another problem with Brexit that we now learn about after Brexit.
Keith Pilbeam, City University London
In April 2025, the government took over Chinese owned British Steel, who said they were losing nearly a million pounds a day to keep the business in Scunthorpe up and running.
Months later, the UK steel industry remains fragile. Industry voices say, if the UK can't negotiate quota protections with the EU, British firms, will struggle.
Looking at the Scunthorpe chimney stacks, it's easy to see that steel is not just a metal, but also a mammoth in economic and political weight and central to national identity.
The measures taken by Brussels not only threaten trade, they threaten livelihoods and industrial confidence, and they also act as a stark reminder of post-Brexit Britain's place in Europe.
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