Steel crisis: Should Britain be standing up to China?

Here in China steel has made industrial revolution possible.

In Hong Kong, and across this vast country, skyscrapers, cities, railways and power station have sprung up at a breathtaking pace.

But China's economy is slowing and its appetite for steel has waned.

Although China's factories continue to produce steel at record levels, the international market is awash with China's exports and steel prices have slumped.

The impact is being felt in Britain, this time in Wales where ITV News has learned that Tata Steel will later announce that the bulk of 1,050 jobs will go.

The British Steel industry is in trouble. In the last six months one sixth of workforce has been laid off.

The government has been active. Emergency summits have been convened, working groups commissioned, and just before Christmas Britain secured EU approval for rebates on companies energy bills.

But the government has not cut taxes - specifically Business Rates - in the way companies have asked and in private chief executives complain that Britain is timid in its dealings with China.

Tata and others accuse China of selling its steel at scale and at a loss - they want the flood of imports restricted.

They suggest that France, Italy, Germany and Spain have shown a willingness to protect their industries in a way Britain hasn't.

The European Commission is investigating allegations of dumping and is under pressure from the Business Secretary, Sajid Javid, to come to a conclusion.

Once again, British steel producers perceive a hesitancy.

"Javid should be leading his chariot through Brussels," Gareth Stace, the chief executive of UK Steel told me. The clear implication is that Stace believes he isn't.

Perhaps the government's thinking is that it doesn't want to prop-up an industry that is struggling to compete and that this is an issue that should be left to the market to resolve. If that is the case then no minister has said so publicly.

Perhaps they should, it's a controversial position but a reasonable one.