British Steel Compulsory Liquidation - 22 May 2019

[whole diary]

[grahame]

From The Guardian

Network Rail has made a bid for parts of British Steel ahead of an initial deadline for offers for the company, which collapsed into liquidation in May putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

The company, which manages the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)’s 20,000 miles of rail tracks, said it made the bid to avoid the possibility of losing one of its most important suppliers. The British railway system is heavily dependent on British Steel, which accounts for 97% of the steel used in railway tracks.

1. The dangers of being dependent on a single source of supply

2. Nationalisation of parts of British Steel via the back door??

[stuving]

The "parts of British Steel" are described elsewhere  as: "The offer is understood to include British Steel’s rail service centre business, responsible for the welding, finishing and storing of rails for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)’s rail network, according to a story first reported in the Sunday Telegraph."

So not the rail production business, certainly. It looks like something that only has NR^» (Network Rail - home page) as its end customer, and might have been done in house anyway (if fashions in such things were different).

[Electric train]

From The Guardian

Network Rail has made a bid for parts of British Steel ahead of an initial deadline for offers for the company, which collapsed into liquidation in May putting 4,500 jobs at risk.

The company, which manages the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)’s 20,000 miles of rail tracks, said it made the bid to avoid the possibility of losing one of its most important suppliers. The British railway system is heavily dependent on British Steel, which accounts for 97% of the steel used in railway tracks.

1. The dangers of being dependent on a single source of supply

2. Nationalisation of parts of British Steel via the back door??

The "parts of British Steel" are described elsewhere  as: "The offer is understood to include British Steel’s rail service centre business, responsible for the welding, finishing and storing of rails for the UK’s rail network, according to a story first reported in the Sunday Telegraph."

So not the rail production business, certainly It looks like something that only has NR^» (Network Rail - home page) as its end customer, and might have been done in house anyway (if fashions in such things were different).

This type of intervention is not unheard off by Network Rail, they have in the past brought into the concrete sleep plant in Doncaster, there was also a rail plant company they purchased; NR needs to protect its interests when the wheels fall off of the free market

This will be done with the support of HMG after all NR is a quasi Government body.

[stuving]

The "parts of British Steel" are described elsewhere  as: "The offer is understood to include British Steel’s rail service centre business, responsible for the welding, finishing and storing of rails for the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)’s rail network, according to a story first reported in the Sunday Telegraph."

So not the rail production business, certainly. It looks like something that only has NR^» (Network Rail - home page) as its end customer, and might have been done in house anyway (if fashions in such things were different).

I've just found out a bit more about BS's Rail Technical Services division, and should correct that. They have a rolling mill at Scunthorpe and do produce steel rail. It is in effect part of the steelworks site, and starts with billets (or whatever they are called) from within the site. They will also have other big machines for straightening and other finishing processes. There was another site at Eastleigh, owned by NR, obviously without on-site production.

They were rolling steel to 108 m lengths, for supply as is or flash butt welding pairwise into the 216 m lengths that are the longest NR can transport. In March 2018 they got a big order for 120 m rail to Germany, having painted go farther stripes on their mill. That division also does work in the the applications areas of coatings, noise reduction, repair and rejuvenation, etc.