Background to the British Steel Industry

Question: Briefly provide background to the British steel industry as well as some references to the global steel industry. Answer: Background of British Steel Industry The British steel industry was formed in 1967, when the labor government nationalized the 14 biggest producer of steel. During the period of 1970 to 1984, the demand of steel in global market was very low. However, the production of steel was very high on that time. Therefore, a high production and low demand prevented the steel manufacturer from conducting sustainable business. As a result, different companies started cost deduction process. In this process companies reduces the workforce from 142,000 to 52,000. In 1988, British steel converted as privet by the government after the stock market crash (Forsgren and Johanson 2014). After a sudden crash in stock market, different plan of steel manufacturing announced closer and therefore, 1,800 people lost their job. It affects the overall economy of the country drastically. There are several factors, which are preventing the steel industry to conduct sustainable business. High electricity charge, costly policies of climate change and global competitiveness are the reason behind the massive failure of British steel industry. The strategy of China steel industry was to provide products in low cost for grabbing a strong market position in global market (Drogendijk and Martn 2015). British steel industry was unable to increase market demand due to high product price in contrast with China steel companies. The demand of steel in Britain market has fallen by 1.7% in 2015 and again it rises by 0.7% in 2016. However, the demand has not reached to the pre-financial crash level. Therefore, the British steel industry is facing various troubles in terms of business sustain ability. Reference list Drogendijk, R. and Martn, O.M., 2015. Relevant dimensions and contextual weights of distance in international business decisions: Evidence from Spanish and Chinese outward FDI.International Business Review,24(1), pp.133-147 Forsgren, M. and Johanson, J., 2014.Managing networks in international business. Routl