China’s Cheap Steel Has High Cost to the Environment
by Sangeeta Haindl
Xi Jinping, China’s President visited Britain in the same week that Tata Steel announced job cuts at its U.K. steel plants. Global steel price is at its lowest level in more than a decade, so it is no surprise that the U.K.’s production is becoming economically unviable. China’s economic slowdown has caused a fall in their demand for steel of four percent last year. It could be six percent lower this year. It’s estimated that despite China’s current slowdown, it will still produce one billion tons of steel per year by 2030; that’s roughly half of all global production.
The U.K. steel crisis threatens severe knock-on effects, with jobs threatened throughout the supply chain for the industry. Many towns with steel plants rely on the sector’s workers to spend money in local shops and other businesses. Steel itself provides the basic material for infrastructure and construction needs around the world. It is the material to build climate resilient cities and coastal protection, as steel-based protective designs minimise the impacts of natural disasters. It could be the solution to many challenges from increased emissions of CO2, use of scarce resources and growing challenges to the disposal of waste. As steel can be recycled, its by-products and waste energies are valuable resources.
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Sangeeta Haindl writes on women and children; social innovation; social enterprise and social entrepreneurs. She is the founder of Serendipity PR, in London, U.K., where she works with high-profile brands and organizations in the public, non-profit, and corporate sectors, winning awards for her work from the communications industry. She is chairman of and director of London's leading conscious well-being organisation, Alternatives, which hosts leading speakers such as Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Neale Donald Walsch and many other well-known names. She describes herself as a Spiritual Entrepreneur, Conscious Explorer; enjoying helping others, paying it forward and being a mum.
