Low-carbon reorientation in a declining industry? A longitudinal analysis of coevolving contexts and company strategies in the UK steel industry (1988-2022)

To assess the speed and directionality of low-carbon transition processes in the UK steel industry, this article makes a longitudinal analysis of changing external pressures and company response strategies over the last 34 years. Using the Triple Embeddedness Framework and a five-phase model of reorientation, the study finds that the steel industry's low-carbon reorientation strategies moved from inaction (phase 1 in our model) and incre-mental change (phase 2) in the 1988-1997 period, to hedging and exploration of technical alternatives (phase 3) in the 1997-2007 period, back to incremental change in the 2007-2015 period (phase 2), and then forward again to hedging and exploration of technical alternatives (phase 3) in the 2015-2022 period. The reason for this oscillation pattern is that economic decline and successive retrenchment strategies reduced managerial attention and organizational resources for low-carbon orientation, especially after the 2007/8 financial crisis which led to a survival-focus. In recent years, UK steelmakers have started to explore three decarbonisation pathways (scrap/ electric arc furnaces, carbon-capture-and-storage, and hydrogen direct reduction) but have not yet committed to their deployment, which is why reorientation speed is limited. New economic headwinds in 2021/2 threaten the implementation of low-carbon visions and roadmaps, leading steelmakers to ask for more government support. Future shifts to phase 4 (deployment and diversification) and phase 5 (full reorientation) in our conceptual model will depend on the outcome of currently ongoing political negotiations.