By Paul Homewood
AEP has totally lost the plot now!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/12/08/goves-cumbrian-coal-mine-economic-diplomatic-idiocy/
I would not bother reading the article, as it’s the same old, predictable drivel.
He argues that the mine will not be economic, because our steel industry will have given up blast furnaces at some unidentifiable date in the future. But whether the mine is viable or not is a matter for its owners, West Cumbria Mining. Not AEP, or Greenpeace or the BBC.
As for diplomacy, surely even AEP must have enough grey cells to work out being the first lemming over the cliff has not encouraged the other lemmings to follow suit. Indeed, most of the them are galloping the other way in search of the good life.
BP Energy Review
But let’s get down
to the nitty gritty.
AEP thinks that the traditional way of making iron and steel, using coke in blast furnaces, will soon be a thing of the past, as everybody will be using low carbon processes, such as direct reduction and electric arc furnaces. But such a transformation, if it ever happens, will be decades away, and therefore of little relevance to a new mine in Cumbria now. Blast furnaces, along with the rest of the steelmaking process, are designed to last for decades, and it would simply be uneconomic to just replace them on a whim.
In the UK, none of our steel companies have the money to do so, even if they wanted to. If carbon taxes and the like force them to, they are likely to simply shut up shop instead.
A few simple charts tell the story:
https://www.makeuk.org/insights/publications/uk-steel-key-statistics-guide-2021
The Blast Furnace/BOS process, which is the most economic and productive way to make steel, produces 84% of UK steel. Most of that EAF output is for specialist stainless and alloy steels, which need the quality control an arc furnace can give.
British steel accounts for less than 1% of global steel production, so whatever we do will not make the slightest difference. Globally we also find that the BOS route also predominates:
https://www.makeuk.org/insights/publications/uk-steel-key-statistics-guide-2021+
But more significantly it is the BOS process which has been increasing in leaps and bounds recently. The EAF route has barely grown in the last decade, and for a very good reason – it is more expensive and is dependent on an abundant supply of scarp steel, which is limited.
There is simply no way this trend is going to be reversed for decades to come, regardless of what AEP and his fellow travellers think.
In the meantime the UK imported 2.1 million tonnes of coking coal last year, including 827,000 tonnes from Russia, 739,000 tonnes from the US and 511,000 tonnes from Australia. Does AEP really think it makes sense to import coal from Russia, when it could be mined here? If carbon emissions were so crucial, which he seems to think,it would be a no-brainer.
Indeed, according to British Steel, for every 1000 tonnes of steel produced in the UK, 150 tonnes of CO2 are saved compared to importing from the EU.
One final chart:
https://www.makeuk.org/insights/publications/uk-steel-key-statistics-guide-2021
Not only do we import more steel than we make ourselves, but steel contained in imported goods is as much as production and imported steel combined. Most of that steel that we don’t make ourselves has a much higher carbon footprint, which AEP does not seem to give a toss about, preferring to virtue signal instead.
If he really wants to cut emissions, he should welcome the Cumbria mine, which will provide a reliable, cheap and low carbon supply of coking coal for British steel manufacturers.
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December 11, 2022 at 02:45AM
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