Steelworkers have handed a petition to Downing Street calling on ministers to back the beleaguered industry.
Crippling energy costs and cheap foreign imports threaten the sector’s future, while ministers have also been blasted for buying steel from abroad.
Staff from across the UK turned up at No10 determined to persuade the Government to throw the sector a lifeline.
Adrian Dalgleish, 46, who has worked at Celsa’s Cardiff factory for 16 years, said: “If there’s no action by the Government with regards to procurement and regulation of steel coming from outside the country and on energy prices, there will be no future for the steel industry in the UK.
“Steel goes into the wind turbines that everybody sees when they drive through the country, the offshore wind turbines and the plans for tidal lagoons.
“The best and cheapest way to procure that would be a stable, British steel industry.
“I would like the Government to put more regulations on importing steel, extend the procurement agreement so most manufacturing companies procure steel from British industry and also extend the cap - and if possible, reduce it - on business energy prices.”
Angela Carrigan, 48, who has worked at Liberty Steels’s Dalzell plate mill in Motherwell for 16 years, said: “I’m very worried. We want to make sure steel is there for the future.
“We’re looking for a bit of support from the Government, to actually wake up and see the future is steel.
“Whether it’s wind turbines to reusable water bottles, everything is primarily steel.
“We look at the support other countries get from their governments and all we want is a level playing field.
“It’s really unfair.”
Mark Davies, 56, who has worked at Tata’s Port Talbot plant since he was 16, said: “I’ve worked there for 40 years, my boy works there and I’ve never been as worried for the industry as I am now.
“I’ve been through all the ups and downs, from when it was a nationalised industry to now, and this is now a critical point.
“It’s a perfect storm.”
The petition - organised by the Unite, GMB and Community trade unions - was signed more than 11,500 times.
Campaigners say the sector is “critical to Britain’s economic independence and our national security” and insist that “with government backing, responsible ownership and public support, this great British industry will continue to deliver for our country for many generations to come”.
But Community’s general secretary Roy Rickhuss feared the industry was “approaching a cliff edge”.
He said: “The Government must step up.
“Their continued lack of support is killing our industry and time is running out. If they don’t act now, we’ll lose our industry forever.”
UK Steel’s director-general Gareth Stace said: “The public instinctively understands the importance of steel production and that this country would be considerably poorer without it.
“The coming year will be an extremely challenging one for industry as demand and steel prices weaken, whilst key input costs like energy remain at unprecedented highs.”
A Government spokesman said it was “committed to securing a sustainable and competitive future for the UK steel sector and we are working closely with industry to achieve this”.
He added: “We recognise that businesses are feeling the impact of high global energy prices, including steel producers, which is why we announced the Energy Bill Relief Scheme to bring down costs. This is in addition to extensive support we have provided to the steel sector as a whole to help with energy costs, worth more than £800m since 2013.”
The Mirror has been campaigning to Save Our Steel since 2015 when the industry was hammered by plant closures and thousands of job losses.
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