News in Brief – March 2005

The Metals Forum has made a Budget Submission to Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown calling for action on to help member industries on climate change, energy, education and training and transport. The Forum has called for extension of the Climate Change Agreement to include all metal processes, and for the Climate Change levy to be left unchanged in the Budget. Other requests include no increase in business taxes in view of rapidly rising energy prices, and an urgent review of university funding to prevent the loss of vital resources in science and engineering.

A consortium of 48 European steel  organisations is to launch a collaborative R&D project to develop new steelmaking processes with drastically reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The Ultra Low CO₂ Steelmaking project begins with a five-year exploratory phase for which the European Commission has put up €20M (£13.8M) of the total €44M cost.

The Competition Commission has cleared the acquisition by Arcelor of Corus’s UK hot rolled steel sheet piling business. The commission’s final report concludes that the acquisition is not expected to lead to a lessening of competition. Chairman of the inquiry group, Peter Freeman, said the group was satisfied that Corus would have withdrawn from the loss-making business in any event.

The Metals Forum aims to raise the UK industry’s profile with the publication of a new brochure describing the scope of its activities, available from postroom@steelconstruction.org. The industry employs half a million people with value added of £15bn, similar to chemicals and electricals. Chairman Derek Tordoff said: “The metals industry wants to be more effective in its representations to Government and the media.” The forum has been praised by the DTI for effectively representing cross-sector interests.

Metsec’s framing division has produced a new guide to the applications of its light gauge galvanised framing systems, Metframe and SFS. The guide contains performance tables, loading data, fire resistance and thermal efficiency and sound insulation ratings. It is available free in printed form or on CD with the latest version of SFS Framespec design software by contacting interactive@metsec.com or 0121 601 6000.