Steel Strip

A major building project on the site of a former Scottish steelworks is to be delayed - because of increases in the price of steel.
Work was due to start on Ravenscraig Sports Centre in Motherwell early this summer. However, rising costs have forced the development to be redesigned to keep within budget. The delay will [...]

Essar Steel, the Indian steel producer, is to buy American steel firm Esmark, in a $778m (£392m) deal which includes a $110m long-term loan.
Esmark accepted a cash purchase price of $17 per share, a 13.5% premium on Tuesday’s closing share price.
Esmark chief executive James Bouchard said it needed a strategic partner as raw material [...]

Hardness Testing
Hardness testing for steel is based upon applying pressure to the steel surface and measuring the depth of the indentation. The three major measurement systems are :-
The Brinell hardness test consists in indenting the metal surface with a 10-mm-diameter steel ball at a load of 3,000 kg mass (∼29400 N). For [...]

I came across this interesting article in the guardian.co.uk, by Tim Webb and Heather Stewart.  For years I have been of the opinion the successive Governments "free market, at all costs" attitude has been something of a "double edged sword". The expansion of our home based service economy, and the retraction of our manufacturing industry, [...]