Following the publication of Tata Steel’s December quarter results (see related article), the UK’s largest trade union Unite has made a plea to the Indian steelmaker to commit to UK steelmaking.

The union says that the quarterly results released to Indian stock exchange showed steelmaking in the UK has a future if the British government takes swift and decisive action to support industry. In a statement sent to Kallanish It also urges Tata to guarantee that “… its planned 30 new products will be made it the UK.”

In its results Tata Europe ceo Karl-Ulrich Köhler says that the recent restructuring changes “… will continue to be a core focus in a bid to improve our competitiveness and enable us to concentrate on supplying higher-value products to customers. Making our customers more successful is key to our long-term differentiation strategy. With another 30 new product launches this year, we are making progress.”

Unite also warned UK government ministers that they were turning their backs on the steel industry by failing to turn guidance on procurement for infrastructure projects into orders. “Over the past few weeks it’s emerged that the government is shunning British steel for new warships being built for the Royal Navy, while nearly half the steel for Britain’s first new nuclear power station in a generation will be imported,” the trade union cautions.