Closing summary: Electric carmakers' May Day pay day
Manufacturers around the world have reined back their electric car production in the last two years after fearing demand could fall. In the US Donald Trump further undermined the sector by tearing up several pro-electric vehicle policies.
Yet Trump may have – ironically – ended up boosting global electric car sales, by making petrol prohibitively expensive. The US-Israeli war on Iran has entered its third month, with no sign that the blockade of the strait of Hormuz will end.
Renault’s UK boss on Friday said the Iran war oil price surge has started a “seismic shift upwards” in interest in electric vehicles.
Adam Wood, managing director for the French carmaker in the UK, said that buyers were realising that it was much cheaper to charge electric cars than to fill up with petrol.
Here are some of the other business headlines from today:
Combine British Steel and Speciality Steel UK, says Czech group
Some evidence of higher margins from petrol sellers, says UK’s CMA
UK’s FCA faces legal challenges to £9.1bn car finance compensation scheme
UK manufacturing business costs surge because of Iran war
Oil prices up with no end of Iran blockade in sight
Diageo shares rise after Trump removes Scotch whisky tariffs
House price growth in the UK surprised estate agents and economists by jumping in April.
And finally, to mark May Day – also International Workers’ Day – here are some pictures of the protests and demonstrations from around the world:
Please do join us next week bright and early on Tuesday morning for more live coverage of business and economics. Happy May Day! JJ
Updated
Combine British Steel and Speciality Steel UK, says Czech group
The owner of the UK’s largest electric steelworks has said the government should find a single buyer for British Steel and Speciality Steel UK (SSUK), a move that would create the country’s biggest steelmaker.
Sev.en Global Investments, owned by the Czech billionaire Pavel Tykač, said it not only plans to invest £100m in the UK – mainly in the electric arc steelworks in Cardiff it bought last year – but also has the ability to invest “hundreds of millions of pounds” more in Britain under its 7 Steel brand.
Alan Svoboda, Sev.en’s chief executive, told the Guardian the government should look for a large company with a track record of steel production to take on British Steel’s plant in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, and the SSUK electric arc furnace operation in South Yorkshire, in a thinly veiled pitch for the government to consider 7 Steel as a potential buyer.
The government took control of British Steel in April last year because of fears its Chinese owners were about to close the business. Four months later the official receiver took control of SSUK from the previous owners, Liberty Steel, after it was declared “hopelessly insolvent”.
Svoboda said he was unable to discuss specific talks with the government or any other parties but that “a combination might be a much more attractive solution” if it needed less taxpayer support.
You can read the full story here:
