manufacturing and engineering

UK steelmakers' electricity cost gap with France hits three-year high

• UK Steel found that British steelmakers are paying nearly £30 more per megawatt hour for electricity than their French counterparts — the widest such premium in three years.
• The lobby linked the widening gap to global gas prices climbing since Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz in response to Donald Trump's bombing campaign, exposing the UK's reliance on gas-fired generation to set wholesale electricity prices.
• UK Steel said the UK's reliance on gas-fired generation sets wholesale electricity prices for every source on the grid, a mechanism especially important for cleaner steelmaking with electric arc furnaces; French power is largely nuclear-based and German generation still leans on coal.
• UK Steel director general Peter Brennan proposed a £51 million annual price cap, with the government paying above-threshold costs and the industry paying the government when prices fall below.
• A UK government spokesperson cited existing relief, including up to 25 percent electricity bill reductions for more than 10,000 manufacturers and roughly £1 billion a year in relief for electricity-intensive businesses.