At Llanwern steelworks near Newport, a crane is dismantling the derelict halls of what was once among the largest industrial sites in the world. The plant, now owned by Tata and reduced to producing galvanised steel, is running at half capacity, squeezed by high energy costs and cheaper imports following the loosening of tariff protections. Workers describe watching their own workplace being torn down in real time - a visceral image of a wider story about the decline of UK manufacturing.
A long decline, not a sudden shock
British manufacturing's shrinkage has been gradual but relentless. In the 1970s, roughly three in ten UK jobs sat in manufacturing; today that figure is below 8pc, and the sector contributes a similarly modest share of national output, dwarfed by services. Llanwern and Port Talbot - where Tata has also cut thousands of roles while closing blast furnaces - are the most visible casualties, but the pressure extends across carmaking and chemicals. Nissan's Sunderland plant, once held up as proof that British manufacturing could compete globally, is also running at half capacity, with executives blaming electricity costs among the highest faced by any Nissan site worldwide.
China's shadow over British industry
Much of this strain traces back to China's rise as a manufacturing superpower since joining the World Trade Organisation in 2001. Cheap imports have undercut domestic producers in sectors from cars to chemicals. Industry figures have accused Chinese manufacturers of building excess capacity in products such as PVC and exporting the surplus into European markets at prices domestic firms cannot match - a dynamic that has coincided with a string of UK chemical plant closures and a steep fall in sector output since 2021. The debate now facing ministers is whether to court Chinese carmakers such as BYD and MG's owner SAIC for investment, or follow the European Union toward tariff protection for domestic industry - a tension with no easy resolution.
Labour's reindustrialisation pledge
Against this backdrop, senior Labour figures used last week's party conference to promise a "new era of industrialisation," framing manufacturing as essential to national security in an unstable world. The rhetoric draws an explicit parallel with Harold Wilson's 1960s pledge to forge industry in the "white heat" of technology - a programme now widely regarded as having fallen short, producing conglomerates that largely collapsed within decades and forcing a currency devaluation along the way. Critics note the current plan looks similarly scattershot: the headline commitment, £6bn for shipbuilding infrastructure, addresses existing capacity rather than future technology. Trade unions are pushing for something far more sweeping - renewed nationalisation across energy, water, transport and steel - a path that would carry substantial upfront cost and risk to public finances, as the state's experience with British Steel, reportedly losing significant sums daily, already illustrates.
What actually still works
Not every sector is in retreat. Pharmaceuticals and the broader life sciences industry remain robust, underpinned by heavy research investment that is harder to relocate overseas. Defence and aerospace engineering are also expanding, buoyed by new technology and geopolitical demand. The contrast suggests that any credible industrial strategy needs to be selective rather than nostalgic - backing sectors with genuine comparative advantage rather than attempting to resurrect the broad manufacturing base of the mid-20th century. Whether government ambition translates into investment will depend less on conference speeches than on the thousands of individual business decisions - on hiring, expansion and capital spending - that remain, for now, in a holding pattern.