Scotland is “leading the fightback” for a share of the import-dominated UK steel market, Liberty has said.
The country’s last steel mills were saved from closure by the GFG Alliance and it now aims to produce more than 120,000 tonnes of plate steel this year for large-scale infrastructure projects.
Management said the British market for plate steel has been “overwhelmed” in recent years by imports from Europe and South Korea for projects such as shipbuilding, undersea pipes and wind turbines.
Finance Secretary Derek Mackay visited Liberty Steel Dalzell in Motherwell on Wednesday for a tour of the reopened plant.
Managing director Gordon MacRae said: “With the skill and determination of the workforce at Dalzell, we’ve begun to make real inroads into this market. We’re already reclaiming lost market share and we have big ambitions for future growth, not only at home but in key export markets also.
“Making a comeback after closure was always going to be a big challenge but we are now seeing real progress.
“We’re expanding our product range and customer base and we firmly believe that Scotland is now leading the fightback for a share of the UK market for this toughest of steels.”
Mr MacKay said: “The Scottish Government are committed to ensuring our steel sector has a sustainable future, building on the long and proud heritage of steelwork in Scotland.
“We are committed to doing as much as we can to increase the industry’s ability to compete in global markets, which will help bring new opportunities to Scotland’s economy.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here