Crisis looms in Britain, steel makers warn

Reuters via Yahoo UK ^ | October 11, 2021

[Oldeconomybuyer]

LONDON (Reuters) -The British steel industry's lobby group warned on Monday of an impending crisis due to soaring wholesale energy prices which could force plants into expensive shutdowns, stoke emissions and sow chaos through supply chains.

A shortage of natural gas in Europe had sent prices for electricity and gas soaring, triggering sharp rises in the prices paid by people heating their homes or for major heavy industrial plants smelting steel.

"These extraordinary electricity prices are leading to smaller or wiped-out profits and thus to less reinvestment," UK Steel, which lobbies on behalf of the British steel industry, said in a briefing document.

"With winter approaching, demand for gas and electricity will rise, and prices could get higher, which will make it impossible to profitably make steel."

As the West comes to terms with a massive splurge by governments during the COVID-19 lockdowns, investors are increasingly concerned that steep price rises will whiplash the world's biggest economies, making money more expensive, tipping companies into the red and eroding wages.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[bert]

Yahoo/Verizon is an unacceptable source for excerpts

[gnarledmaw]

Wow, and just recently there was a big push to convert to natural gas as the cheap fossil of the future.

Its a good thing that a veritable Legion of Doom comprised of the worlds most evil billionaires have gotten together to start a new solar company. What would we do without their foresight?

I mean, its not like Gates and Soros could have seen this coming before the plandemic, right?

[LordOddsocks]

In three weeks time, 2021-10-31 @ 07:00hrs I will look out of my bedroom window at the 200metre (650ft) chimney of a redundant oil-fired power station, situated about 12 miles away.

The station was once one of the largest and most efficient in England. It burnt “heavy waste” oil, from the adjacent refinery. It opened in 1971.

I’m not sure how warm I will feel with our current energy crisis, but by 07:01hrs the chimney will be in pieces, following a controlled demolition.

I’m told part of our energy problem is that the wind this year is at a 60 year low - meaning power from that source barely provides 9% of our needs.

Why destroy perfectly good infrastructure before reliable replacements are in place?

Fawley power station was used in many movies due to the futuristic control room. Rollerball being one. I visited it as a kid in the late 70’s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawley_Power_Station