Scotland was world’s engine

THE steel industry in Scotland dates back to pre-Roman times.

Some traces of Celtic metalwork have been found to be 3200 years old.

While Scottish metal production picked up pace in the 18th Century, to begin with the stuttering industry under-performed.

By 1825 annual production had only risen to 25,000 tons. Other countries, like Wales, produced six times that.

The root of the problem lay in one of the core ingredients for metal production – coal.

Scottish coal has a low carbon content meaning producing one ton of iron required twice as much coal as in other countries.

But this changed in 1828 when it was discovered pre-heating the air in furnaces would improve the efficiency of the industrial process.

Scottish steel wouldn’t look back.

At its peak it employed nearly half of Scotland’s working population, making the country an essential cog in the industrial revolution.

Between 1830 and 1847 Scottish iron production increased 15-fold to 540,000 tons a year.

The industry peaked around 1871 with more iron ships built on the Clyde than in the whole of the rest of the world.

The outbreak of two world wars would inject demand for steel, but peace-time bit hard.

In 1967 the industry was nationalised, with Ravenscraig Steelworks in Motherwell becoming the centre of operations in Scotland.

But by 1988, high manufacturing costs, a downturn in shipbuilding and overseas competition saw another slump.

Many plants did not recover from this perfect storm, including Ravenscraig, which shut in 1991.

Other businesses – like Dalzell – struggled on amid fears the Government wasn’t doing enough to save jobs amid the rise of cheaper foreign steel.