On Saturday 16 February, the Department for Business and Trade, led by Secretary of State The Rt Hon Jonathan Reynolds MP issued its open consultation The steel strategy: the plan for steel.

With a deadline of Sunday 30 March 2025 to respond, the consultation is seeking views from the metals sector to inform the development of a steel strategy, which the Department will plan to publish in Spring 2025. This strategy document will inform and direct Government policy throughout Labour’s tenure in Government, and possibly beyond.

In developing the strategy, the consultation explores the opportunities and challenges across 12 policy areas which could have the biggest impact on the steel industry. Crucially one the 12 identified is ‘scrap’, with the Government seeking views on how to best use and improve the UK’s capability in scrap metal processing, in light of the transition to EAFs.

The wider context for the inclusion of scrap can be found here. But in summary, Government suggests that with an industry-wide transition to Electric Arc Furnaces, the UK metals recycling industry will require investment in processing technology to ensure a steady supply of low-residual scrap (Government believes most scrap is only processed to level suitable for rebar-grade commodity steel). They also suggest the current market does not encourage the processing of sufficient quantities of high-quality scrap material in the UK and that many shredders are under-used.

The consultation asks two specific questions relating to scrap processing:

What actions should UK government take to encourage more domestic processing of end-of- life vehicles, or encourage stronger circularity of domestic scrap flows, either within the scrap industry or within vertically integrated steel businesses? 

How important is innovation in developing new processing systems, extracting residuals or designing more tolerant steel products?

How far government seeks to intervene to support the metals recycling industry will depend on the responses to those two key questions. It is therefore imperative metal recyclers submit responses to this consultation, offering their insight into the challenges and opportunities they face in meeting the new domestic demand for low-residual scrap that is posed by the UK’s transition to Electric Arc Furnace technology. BMRA will be making its own response, directed by input from BMRA members, but we urge you to make your own response too. If you do not submit a response, the Government will still consider innovation support, tax policy, packaging policy reform and export impediments, but without your views.

And whilst the explicit focus on ‘scrap’ is limited to two questions, other topics including green steel, electricity prices and workforce and skills all have questions in the consultation where members may wish to express their views, and BMRA recommends you do.

If you have any questions regarding this consultation document, do not hesitate to get into contact with your public affairs team at the BMRA via [email protected].

You can respond to the consultation via the following link – click here whilst enquiries to the Department for Business and Trade directly can be made via [email protected]