British Steelmakers Identify Quarterly Electric Bill As Their Main Global Rival
The latest price comparison has left the industry wondering whether its most formidable competitor is a furnace, a foreign rival, or a very large invoice.
LONDON, British steelmakers have discovered that their main global rival is neither cheap foreign labour nor advanced manufacturing. It is their own quarterly electric bill.
Analysis by lobby group UK Steel found that the electricity price premium paid by British steelmakers over French rivals has reached its highest point in three years. This has led to fresh comparisons between industrial power costs and the household bill that arrives with its warning printed in a slightly darker red.
The bill, a 14-page document known as Gerald, attended a meeting with steel industry representatives after becoming the only competitor reliably present in every market. Gerald declined to comment because of a full schedule of standing charges. He was later seen leaving with several kilowatt-hours of confidential information.
“Our fiercest competitor now arrives folded inside an envelope.”
British steelmakers once assumed competition involved products, wages, transport, technology and other companies making the same thing more cheaply. The figures have cleared that up. France has electricity. Britain has electricity and an invoice apparently designed by ornamental accountants.
Nessa Quench, interim director of the Office for Industrial Encouragement and Mildly Concerning Arithmetic, said furnaces would now be judged on their output and on whether they could achieve it without looking directly at the meter.
The office proposed switching off lights in warehouses with no lights, asking blast furnaces to work during cheaper parts of the week, and replacing the national grid with a large extension lead through a friendly country. A trial to power a rolling mill with heat from energy-policy arguments was cancelled when the arguments became too hot.
Gerald has reportedly developed wider ambitions. After beating French rivals on price pressure, the quarterly bill is studying German engineering, Italian presentation and an Olympic entry as a synchronised financial burden. A man standing nearby said it had the look of a champion. Nobody could afford to turn on the television.
Industry observers expect the next comparison to include electricity, transport, insurance, accounting software and the cost of reading the electricity bill aloud. British steel can still make extremely strong metal. Making a profit at the same time remains a separate matter.