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currently be manufactured here in the UK – the only mill that could produce some of them here is now in liquidation. They have quoted us a 56-week lead time for the materials they can supply but cannot even tell us when they will be able to start producing. Our estimate is end of the year at the earliest. The manufacturing industry cannot afford to take even a one percent tariff at the moment, and they’ re about to take 50 percent.
“ Manufacturing is already being sent abroad, and there’ s no point in them saving an industry when there’ s going to be no one to service at the end of it. We want to see British steel come back to the UK and we want UK manufacturing to succeed, but the government is making that increasingly difficult for us right now.”
While the measures are designed to support UK primary steel production, industry groups warn they could create serious financial and logistical challenges for downstream sectors such as construction, engineering, and manufacturing, many of which rely on imported specialist steel grades that are not readily available in the UK. Businesses have raised concerns that the changes could add millions of pounds in extra costs, disrupt fragile supply chains, and, in some cases, force production stoppages where essential materials cannot be sourced domestically. Industry leaders have also criticized the lack of a formal impact assessment, arguing the policy risks undermining competitiveness, encouraging offshoring, and pushing firms toward cheaper, less sustainable overseas suppliers.
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