§ Mr. Ralph Howellasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will compare the man-hours required, and the labour cost, of one ton of steel produced by the British Steel Corporation with similar figures for the average cost of steel produced in Germany, France, the United States of America, Japan and Sweden.
§ Mr. MeacherIt is not possible to derive from currently available statistical series reasonably precise comparative figures on man-hours and labour cost per tonne of crude steel. The BSC, which has an on-going interest in the relative performance of world steel makers, is hoping to assemble reasonably comparative figures in due course.
§ Mr. Leadbitterasked the Secretary of State for Industry what proportion of the total size of the steel production capacity in the Common Market is laid down for any member country in the ECSC or the Paris Treaty; and to what extent the BSC is required to comply.
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§ Mr. Meacher, pursuant to his reply [Official Report, 19th May 1975], gave the following information:
There is no provision in the ECSC Treaty of Paris for any fixing of the share for individual member countries of the total Community steel production capacity. However, the Commission's published guidelines for mergers between steel undertakings state that special consideration is necessary before authorisation of any merger creating a concentration of more than 13 per cent. of total Community capacity. It was made clear in the negotiations for United Kingdom entry that the size of BSC, then about 16 per cent. of total ECSC capacity, was not called into question and the Commission had no powers to prevent the BSC or the private British steel industry from constructing additional production capacity.