Recently, the UK's steel industry has been dogged by news of closures or sell-offs, withthousands of jobs at risk. This is a sad story: the pioneer of the modern steel industry – oncethe world's factory, churning out almost half of global steel production in the latter half of the19th century – is shrinking and bogged down in difficulties.
近一个时期，英国钢铁行业不断传来不好消息，一些企业将停产或被出售，数千就业岗位面临威胁。英国是现代钢铁工业发源地，19世纪后半叶钢铁产量几乎占全球一半，曾一度是世界钢铁中心。时至今日，英钢铁行业逐步萎缩，步履维艰，令人感到惋惜。
However, it is regrettable that some people in Britain blame China for what is happening in theBritish steel industry and accuse China of "dumping" steels in Britain and pricing localcompanies out of the steel market. Making China the "scapegoat" only misleads the public andcontributes nothing to the solution of the problem.
但令我感到遗憾的是，英国一些人士将英国钢铁业不景气的归咎于中国，指责中国以不合理的低价向英国"倾销"钢材，挤压了英国钢铁企业的生存空间。这种将中国作为"替罪羊"的观点不仅误导公众，也无益于问题的解决。
As Chinese Ambassador, I believe it is my duty to share with the British public what I see as themultiple reasons behind the sluggishness in Britain's steel industry.
我感到，作为中国大使，我有责任向英国公众讲清真相。英国钢铁业的不景气是由于国际国内多重原因造成的。
First of all, the shrinking steel sector tallies with the general trend in advanced economieswhere traditional manufacturing has been replaced by a modern services and financial sector.Sheffield's transformation from a steel-making city to a sport and education hub is a case inpoint.
从行业发展看，在发达国家钢铁业占经济比重日益减少是大趋势，金融业和现代服务业已取代传统制造业的地位。谢菲尔德从"钢铁之都"转型为"体育教育之城"就是最好的例证。
Second, in the post-financial crisis era, recovery stays weak and demand remains scarce inmost of the economies. Steel overcapacity thus becomes an acute issue worldwide andsteelmakers, wherever they are, face similar difficulties. The UK is not alone. Steel companies inEurope, China and beyond are all trapped in the same predicament.
从全球范围看，后金融危机时期各国经济复苏乏力，有效需求疲软，全球钢铁产能过剩问题突出，钢铁企业处境艰难是普遍现象。不仅仅是英国，整个欧洲、中国乃至全球的钢铁产业都面临困境。
Third, the price of steel production, including energy, labour and environmental costs, is ratherhigh here in the UK. In face of fierce global competition, British companies in general are lesscompetitive and less profitable in the field of ordinary and low-end steel production.
从英国自身看，钢铁业能源、环境、劳工等方面成本居高不下，在全球钢铁业激烈竞争的背景下，英国钢铁企业在普通或低端钢材生产上总体缺乏竞争力，盈利空间狭小。
Steel imported from China, amounts of which are very limited, has little to do with thepredicament of the UK's steel industry. In both volume and value, steel from China makes uponly a fraction of the UK's total steel imports. In 2015, for example, of the UK's 6.66m tons ofimports, only 11pc, or 760,000 tons, were from China. If put in value, that was $457m, only7.6pc of the $5.98bn total. Moreover, steel products from China are
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