Addressing a gathering of industry leaders at UK Steel's Annual Forum in London, David Irvine, Managing Director of Erasteel in Sheffield and the new Chairman of UK Steel welcomed the recent performance of steel companies which has seen new investment by the sector running at £300 million a year.
He also praised the Metals Forum which had won substantial development challenge funding from DEFRA and the DTI at the end of 2005.This will establish benchmarks for the sector and develop key indicators that may be used to drive performance through the supply chain.
This investment "is a powerful expression of commitment to the UK. ….. to ensure a sustainable future for the industry, the people who work in it and of course for the communities that depend on the wealth created by the companies involved" said Mr Irvine.
However, whilst welcoming the government's energy review Mr Irvine warned that this was no time for complacency about either security of supply or uncompetitive prices and urged the government not to shirk from the tough choices ahead.
In addition, he criticised two pieces of legislation which will add to the sector's costs without any proportionate environmental benefits.
In particular, he referred to the possible extension of the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme where Brussels guidelines threaten to extend the scheme's coverage and take in even more steel companies and even more installations.
"Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing us and one of the areas where government imposed burdens continue to worsen. DEFRA must use the flexibility it has in interpreting the guidelines [on emissions trading] to the hilt to keep coverage to the minimum so that as few companies get caught up as possible, ensuring the costs imposed will be proportionate to the environmental benefits gained" said Mr Irvine.
Mr Irvine also criticised the Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals (REACH) Directive. "This legislation was conceived to deal with problems that were thought to exist in the organic chemical sector. Whilst we have ended up with a draft that is workable, it should never have been applied to metals in the first place. It's an unfortunate example of the legislators' inability to resist the temptation to draw up new codes, laws or regulations, no matter what the Prime Minister and Chancellor may say about regulatory simplification."