Industry that provided the battleships to beat Hitler and the lifeblood of Britain's industrial towns enters final death throes: How 150-year-old steel trade finally discovered China was the enemy it couldn't beat

  • Britain's formerly mighty steel industry seems to have entered its death throes with British Steel's liquidation 
  • The importance of steel throughout Britain's history is difficult to overstate - but the industry suffers busts 
  • Global competition, particularly from Asia, has seen Britain's steel industry cut down by international rivals

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Britain's once mighty steel industry has seemingly entered its final death throes with British Steel entering liquidation.

With plants in Port Talbot, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield, Britain was formerly the powerhouse of the world's steel production - seeing generations working throughout the country's 150-year-long history in the industry, producing battleships that bested Hitler along with railways, bridges and buildings and providing thousands of British families with jobs. 

The importance of steel throughout Britain's history is difficult to overstate - but the industry has endured booms and busts ever since its conception, and rising competition from emerging markets, particularly in Asia, have seen the colossus of Britain's steel industry cut down. 

Britain had led the Industrial Revolution, which saw an explosion of coal mining, steam power, textile mills, and steel-based production at the turn of the 20th century.  

Pictured: Quality checking a giant saw blade, Edgar Allen's steel foundry, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 1963

Pictured: Quality checking a giant saw blade, Edgar Allen's steel foundry, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, 1963

Pictured: A worker operating equipment at the Abbey Steelworks, Margam, Port Talbot, South Wales, October 1961

Pictured: A worker operating equipment at the Abbey Steelworks, Margam, Port Talbot, South Wales, October 1961

Pictured: Doncaster, where workers were making and repairing locomotives and rolling stock for the Great Northern Railway

Pictured: Doncaster, where workers were making and repairing locomotives and rolling stock for the Great Northern Railway

July 1934: Elizabeth, Duchess of York, later the Queen Mother (1900 - 2002) receives an enthusiastic welcome from a crowd of female workers during a visit to the Firth & Brown steelworks in Sheffield

July 1934: Elizabeth, Duchess of York, later the Queen Mother (1900 - 2002) receives an enthusiastic welcome from a crowd of female workers during a visit to the Firth & Brown steelworks in Sheffield

Steel-making in Scunthorpe began in the late 19th century and by the early 20th century, had consolidated into three large companies spread over a series of massive sites to the east of the Lincolnshire town. 

The country's steel industry, including the Scunthorpe operations, was briefly nationalised by the post-war Clement Atlee Labour government but this was reversed by Winston Churchill's Conservatives in 1953.

In 1967, 90% of the steel industry was nationalised by Harold Wilson's Labour government and British Steel was created out of 14 separate companies. 

The newly nationalised operation had around 270,000 employees - compared to roughly 30,000 today. 

According to the 1971 employment census, 323,000 people were steel workers - 1.5% of all those employed. This had halved by 1981 to 167,000 (0.8%). The biggest drop was between 1978 and 1981, with numbers falling from 271,000 to 167,000.

In 1973, the government came up with a 10-year development strategy which would bring in billions of pounds of investment, but it meant the industry would be concentrated in five main areas: South Wales, Sheffield, Scunthorpe, Teesside and Scotland. 

A worker cleaning new carving knife blades during the abrasive process that follows knife grinding at a Sheffield steel factory, November 1959
Out of work steel worker Peter Dixon with his children, walking through the industrial landscape of Port Talbot, Wales, 15th January 1964

Pictured left: A worker cleaning new carving knife blades during the abrasive process that follows knife grinding at a Sheffield steel factory, November 1959. Right: Out of work steel worker Peter Dixon with his children, walking through the industrial landscape of Port Talbot, Wales, 15th January 1964

Britain's steel industry, including the Scunthorpe operations, was briefly nationalised by the post-war Clement Atlee Labour government but this was reversed by Winston Churchill's Conservatives in 1953 (pictured: Workmen in a British steel foundry, circa 1960s)

Britain's steel industry, including the Scunthorpe operations, was briefly nationalised by the post-war Clement Atlee Labour government but this was reversed by Winston Churchill's Conservatives in 1953 (pictured: Workmen in a British steel foundry, circa 1960s)

In 1973, the government came up with a 10-year development strategy which would bring in billions of pounds of investment, but it meant the industry would be concentrated in five main areas (pictured: April 28, 1932: Making steel bill hooks and knives in Sheffield by hand)

In 1973, the government came up with a 10-year development strategy which would bring in billions of pounds of investment, but it meant the industry would be concentrated in five main areas (pictured: April 28, 1932: Making steel bill hooks and knives in Sheffield by hand)

The government's strategy of subsidising loss-making plants and prioritising employment levels came to an end with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 (pictured: Workers in the washroom facility at a steelworks, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, 1964)

The government's strategy of subsidising loss-making plants and prioritising employment levels came to an end with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979 (pictured: Workers in the washroom facility at a steelworks, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, 1964)

The Scunthorpe works was rocked by disaster in November 1975 when 11 people died following an explosion in the Queen Victoria blast furnace.

Falling demand and productivity issues dogged the industry through the late 1970s. 

The government's strategy of subsidising loss-making plants and prioritising employment levels came to an end with the election of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. 

The total nationalised workforce at this time was about 142,000.

A 13-week national pay strike shut the industry down in 1980, and the early 1980s saw dramatic cuts to production in Scunthorpe - but around 9,000 people were employed in the industry in the town in 1982.

An employee of the Abbey Steelworks of Port Talbot measures a roll of steel, October 1, 1961
George Goodwin, a steel potter in Sheffield, July 1949

Left: An employee of the Abbey Steelworks of Port Talbot measures a roll of steel, October 1, 1961. Right: George Goodwin, a steel potter in Sheffield, July 1949

May 8, 1952: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (left) in conversation with craven lathe operator Joe Howsley in the Central Repair shop at the Steel Company of Wales at Margam, Port Talbot

May 8, 1952: Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (left) in conversation with craven lathe operator Joe Howsley in the Central Repair shop at the Steel Company of Wales at Margam, Port Talbot

The Tory government privatised British Steel in 1988. The national workforce had shrunk to 52,000 by this time. 

By 1990, around 7,300 people were employed in the industry in Scunthorpe. 

Steel requires large investment in its mills and furnaces, which can lead to an overproduction of steel, increasing supply and pushing prices downwards as developing nations look elsewhere to sell the surplus. 

China's recent industrial revolution over the past few decades has seen the country invest heavily in steel production - and when the country overproduced, it would slash prices for international markets, crippling the competition.  

In 1992, British Steel announced further cuts to the industry with the closure of the Ravenscraig plant in North Lanarkshire, dominating the headlines as it signalled the end of steel-making in Scotland.

In 1999 British Steel and the Dutch steel-maker Koninklijke Hoogovens merged, creating the Corus Group. The new firm became the biggest steel-maker in Europe. But Corus soon faced severe problems and announced plans to cut the national workforce, which dropped to around 30,000.

January 24, 1949: Workers leaving the Steel Company of Wales works at Port Talbot at the end of the afternoon shift

January 24, 1949: Workers leaving the Steel Company of Wales works at Port Talbot at the end of the afternoon shift

In 2007 Corus, including the Scunthorpe operation, was bought by the Indian firm Tata Steel in a £6.8 billion takeover.

The company intended to stay competitive with its rivals, taking over Corus in a £6.2billion bid to build the fifth biggest steel company in the world. 

By 2014, around 34,500 people were employed in the UK's steel industry. A further crisis in the industry in 2015 saw closures including the end of the Redcar works, which was bought from Tata by SSI in 2012. 

Further contraction took place at plants across the country as controversy swirled around energy costs and fears of cheap Chinese steel destabilising the world market.

Greybull Capital bought Tata's Long Products Division for £1 In 2016. It resurrected the name British Steel.

Today, British Steel went into liquidation, meaning up to 4,000 jobs in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, 800 in Teesside and 20,000 in the UK supply chain are now at risk.