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IPFS News Link • European Union

The EU, Not Brexit, Killed British Steel

• https://www.zerohedge.com by Justin Murray

The explanation provided for this failure is that British Steel is a victim of the UK's decision to exit the European Union's bureaucratic fold . On the surface, this appears to be true, as the company stated that orders from the continent have declined due to uncertainty over the exit process that the UK Parliament has dragged out over the past three years. However, if we dig deeper, we find that it was the EU, not the Brexit decision, which killed the company.

European Overregulation

If we look at the company's latest annual report, we find that the company went from a profit of £92 million in FY ending 2017 to a £19 million loss in FY ending 2018. To douse water on the Brexit claims, the company's revenues actually increased 11% year-over-year. The real problem was the company's expenses bloated by a tremendous 25% over the same period. The steel production process is energy intensive, so a significant portion of this price increase is related to a sharp spike in energy prices in the UK over late 2017 to early 2018.


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