Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
British Steel Re-Nationalized
Back in the old days, Labour governments were in the business of nationalization. Holding onto the proto-Leninist view that the government must control the commanding heights of the economy, the British government owned things like British Steel, the coal industry, the railways and so on. Mrs. Thatcher (as she then was) sold all that off to her pals and gave the proceeds away to them. Now, the government has realized that there are some things that are not economically viable in the market but that remain important for the nation all the same. So to prevent the closure of the last British steel mill, the government has nationalized it, and the railways are next.
In 2020, a Chinese company called Jingye Group bought the facility in Scunthorpe, a town in the East Midlands. By 2025, Jingye was activelly moving to shut it down.
The New York Times explained
The government first intervened in Scunthorpe in April 2025, when it appeared that British Steel's owner, Jingye Group, was taking unilateral action to close down the blast furnaces, threatening Britain’s last remaining capacity to make crude steel. The government invoked emergency measures to seize control of the day-to-day running of the plant.
For the next year, the government sought a private sector buyer for the site, but there were no takers. Given the choice of closure or nationalization, the government opted for the latter.
"British Steel is part of the fabric of our nation and a cornerstone of Britain's industrial strength," Mr. Starmer said in a statement on Thursday. "Today's decision secures the future of steelmaking in the U.K., protects skilled jobs and safeguards a vital national capability."
In the age of Artificial Intelligence, drones and 3D printing, the question is not whether steel is part of the fabric of the nation but rather for what does the nation need steel? Cars use less of it than they did 50 years ago. Airplanes use more aluminum than they used to, reducing the steel content of the aircraft. Yet demand for steel in actually rising.
McKinsey issued a report in December of last year that stated:
Global steel demand is projected to rise modestly from approximately 1,750 million metric tons in 2024 to between 1,850 million and 1,900 million metric tons by 2035, with most growth concentrated in India and SEA.1 Meanwhile, China’s apparent finished-steel demand is projected to decrease from between 900 million and 950 million metric tons in 2024 to between 800 million and 850 million metric tons by 2035, driven by a structural slowdown in China’s real estate and construction sectors.2 China's increasing export surpluses are reshaping global trade patterns.
Trade measures in major steel markets have doubled since 2020, reflecting efforts by some regions, such as Europe, to safeguard domestic industries.
There is nothing wrong with imported steel. It works just like domestically produced steel. If one can access it in the market, there is no need to produce it more expensively at home. As the world has seen with oil, however, when the trade is not there, major problems follow.
Even with 3D printed drones as a major development in warfare, those drones will need to be made of something, and steel remains a basic component in their production. High-rise buildings, bridges, railways and ships all require steel. It makes no economic sense for the UK to produce its own steel, but trade is not defense.
This is what the neo-liberal view gets wrong. There are some things more important than economics. Defense of the nation is one of them. One predicts that British Steel will lose money for the rest of time. That is a subsidy the taxpayers should willingly pay. Not everything should be subject to market forces.
© Copyright 2026 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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