UK Steel is the trade association for the UK steel industry and is a division of EEF, the manufacturers' organisation.
EEF has a membership of 6,000 manufacturing, engineering and technology-based businesses and represents the interests of manufacturing at all levels of government. EEF is one of the UK's leading providers of business services in employment relations and employment law, health, safety and environment, manufacturing performance, and education and skills.
Our Mission:
UK Steel aims to:
- Influence the economic, political and social environment of the industry to the benefit of its members, promoting the industry by effective communication throughout the membership and those outside;
- Inform members of relevant developments in European, UK and other legislative or statutory bodies and to seek to influence those developments to the benefit of members, particularly to ensure that they are not disadvantaged compared with their competitors in world steel markets or in other industries.
- Provide an efficient and economical service to members on matters which they consider appropriate for joint action or representation.
- Monitor other countries' industries and steel markets, providing a forum for discussion and forecasting of economic developments in the UK and elsewhere.
- Co-ordinate members' participation and representations in the development of technical standards, research and development programmes and environmental matters to ensure that their interests are properly promoted and safeguarded.
- Provide a forum for discussion for members.
What we do:
Lobbying on behalf of the steel industry
UK Steel is the voice of the UK steel industry and is active in representing the views of its member companies to policy and opinion formers in the UK and Europe.
Promoting the UK steel industry
Representing views to policy and opinion formers inevitably involves promotion of the industry. All too few people are aware of the presence of steel in their lives, or of the transformation that has been achieved in the UK steel industry.
Today's UK steel industry is modern, vibrant, dynamic and efficient. It is technically innovative, socially progressive and environmentally responsible; it is also an attractive place to work. Promoting the reality of the UK steel industry, the importance of the industry to the national economy, the importance of steel, the diversity of its uses and its impact on every day life is a priority for UK Steel.
Products and Product Groups
Steel companies produce steel in a variety of shapes, sizes and qualities, depending on the use to which the steel is to be put. While some steel products (such as railway rails and some steel products used in construction) are instantly recognisable to the general public, most steel products are supplied to other industrial companies for further processing and manufacture into end-products.
More information on steel products, how they are made and what they are used for, can be found on the How Steel is Made pages.
Within UK Steel, those companies with common business interests are grouped together in product groups. These product groups are listed in the Member Companies page, which also provides addresses and contact numbers for our members.
Developing and promoting standards
Standards have supported the steel industry since the standards process began at the turn of the previous century. Interestingly, the very first British Standard, published in 1903, was a steel standard. The tradition continues today: most steel is traded against some form of standrad, whether national, European or international.
UK Steel is one of the major representational bodies at BSI (the British Standards Institution) and provides expertise in all the standards-making fora. It is also active in promoting the use and assessing the wider impact of modern standards.
Our subsidiary companies
UK Steel has two subsidiary companies providing specific services to members and to other companies within the wider steel sector:
The Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau (ISSB Ltd) provides both standard and tailor-made statistical services to the steel industry, governments and international organisations. It has established a world-wide reputation for statistical information on the global steel industry.
UK Steel (Environmental) Ltd was incorporated as a subsidiary company in 2000 in order to facilitate UK Steel's management and administrative activities on behalf of the UK steel industry relating to the sector's collective commitments to reduce energy consumption under the steel industry's Climate Change Levy agreements.