Steel tycoon: Brexit will help
A METALS tycoon today says that leaving the European Union would be good for the British steel industry.
In an interview with the Daily Mail, Sanjeev Gupta warns that the UK Government cannot do enough to support struggling steel companies because of Brussels.
Referring to a Brexit, Mr Gupta, 44, who last year reopened a steel mill in Newport, South Wales, through his company Liberty House, says: ‘For my industry, I think it’s a good thing.’
He adds: ‘The Government doesn’t have the freedom to act because it has to go through Brussels. Everything takes for ever.’
Critics claim that Brussels has failed to take the action required to protect the steel industry from Chinese imports. The race is now on to find a buyer for Tata Steel UK after its Indian parent company rejected a rescue plan for its Port Talbot plant.
Mr Gupta, who was finalising the purchase of Tata Steel’s unwanted Scottish sites at Dalzell and Clydebridge before this week’s announcement, has mixed feelings over a Brexit.
‘I’m torn,’ he says. ‘For my industry, I think it’s a good thing (to leave), but personally I don’t. As a world, we need to integrate more.’
He urges the Government to take further action to lower the cost of power for energy intensive industries – including scrapping green taxes. They have already done a bit with the refund to energy intensive industries,’ he says. ‘But even after that, (the cost of power) is still double that of Germany and France.’
The steel boss wants policymakers to take more radical action.
‘Scrap the carbon tax for energy intensive industries,’ he says.
‘It kills industry and industry will just continue to export production to another country where they don’t have the tax.
Mr Gupta added: ‘The Government is listening, but the speed at which they can react is hampered by the EU because everything has to go through Brussels.’
Full interview – Page 73