Innovation in the British Steel Industry

Abstract

Until the 1880s Britain was the world’s foremost producer of steel and a leading innovator, with developments such as Bessemer steelmaking to its credit (Dennis, 1967). But by 1890 Britain had been surpassed as a producer by the United States and by Germany, too, by 1900. Now Britain stands eighth in world steel output. In international trade Britain has performed badly compared to West Germany and Japan, a relative newcomer to world steel production. In 1965 Britain still had the fourth most favourable net balance among Western producers in direct steel trade; by 1974 she had become a net steel importer. The labour productivity of the British steel industry is now below that of all its major national European competitors, half that of the United States and almost a third that of Japan (American Iron and Steel Institute, 1975, table 4).

I owe an enormous debt to many British and German steelmakers and plantmakers for their time, advice and hospitality between 1976 and 1978. Although much of the material in the chapter was obtained from these interviews and visits, no unpublished items of information have been attributed, in order to protect confidentiality of sources. Any merit this paper might have is attributable to their help and to the comments of Mike Brown, Ian Christmas and Bernard Keeling. Christine Fielding and Bob Ward provided research assistance. But I alone must take the blame for errors, omissions and misinterpretations which remain.