The UK’s famous potteries need time “to breathe” from Net Zero rules that threaten to bring about “decarbonisation by deindustrialisation”, the head of the trade body says.
Rob Flello, Chief Executive of Ceramics UK, called for a pause in the “relentless drive to Net Zero”, explaining that the race to clean energy is too fast for technology to match ambition.
It now has until April 8 to financially secure its future. CEO Sebastian Lazell has said he is “trying to move heaven and earth” to rescue the business and a #SaveDenby campaign is encouraging people to buy more products and lobby government to provide support.
Denby is the latest household name to run into difficulties. In 2023, Johnsons Tiles closed its UK factory, and last year, Royal Stafford, which was founded in 1845, entered liquidation, citing energy costs and falling orders.
The ceramics sector is not limited to porcelain and tableware. It plays a critical role in other industries, from construction to aerospace.
Ceramic refractory linings are vital to steel furnaces and crucibles It employs more than 20,000 people and generates over £2billion a year in sales, with a third of these exports.
Denby ceramics is looking to appoint administrators
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By 2050 the UK intends to be carbon neutral, meaning we must radically reduce our emissions and offset any that remain using technology such as carbon capture.
But the transition is particularly difficult for the ceramics sector, where the high firing temperatures needed to manufacture mean that gas remains a crucial source of energy.
Efforts to electrify kilns are ongoing, as is research on hydrogen as a fuel, but the technology can’t meet the demand, said Mr Flello.
The cumulative effect leaves UK manufacturers at a disadvantage, he said. He explained: “My view is that we should pause for a couple of years to actually give the industry a chance to catch up, because all that is happening is we are handing a gift to overseas importers.
Ed Miliband continues to push for Britain’s Net Zero 2050 target | GETTY
“The reality is that the Net Zero stick is getting ever bigger and we are still waiting for a sniff of the carrot.”
Measures Ceramics UK is calling for include:
· More funding for decarbonisation technology such as electrification Expansion of the British Industrial Supercharger scheme to drive down electricity costs for many more ceramic manufacturers
· Support for efficiency measures including kiln upgrades · More gradual phase down of the emissions cap and free allocation trajectory within the UK Emissions Trading Scheme.
· The removal of the Carbon Price Support tax, applied to fossil fuels used for electricity generation
· Protection against production moving offshore Mr Flello said: “We are still fighting. The UK ceramics industry over the last decade has spent £750m of its own money on decarbonisation, with very little government support and in some cases no government support. Yet we are being told to go ever faster.
“We think, at the moment, given the current global economic situation, the way the UK economy is and with what’s happening in Iran, it would be far more sensible just to pause.
“Let’s just pause, give the industry a chance to get its breath and give it a chance to get this research done.”
Even with gas prices spiking as a result of the Iran war, the cost of industrial electricity remains prohibitive, said Mr Flello.
“Electricity is still four or five times as expensive as gas to achieve the same temperatures and the same firing,” he says. “So why would you?
“You would just close down and go abroad. You can go to Turkey, where they are using Russian gas, to India, or China, which is still building coal fired power stations.
“The pursuit of Net Zero doesn’t take into account the fact that other countries aren’t doing it.
“It will just kill our industry unless our industry is given the proper time to get there.
“If you look at the last 20 years, most of the decarbonisation of the UK ceramics industry has come from offshoring – it’s just basically closed down manufacturing in the UK and encouraged importing goods that are made abroad.
“Decarbonisation by deindustrialisation is very much applicable to our industry, unfortunately.”
Rather than reduce greenhouse gases, this only moves them abroad, where lighter regulation was likely to make global emissions higher, Mr Flello said.
He points out that while a British brickmaker conformed to UK regulations and would be working on reducing their carbon emissions, a counterpart in Asia might be using coal to fire the bricks and unregulated labour.
“You can either have a really good British product or something that’s been imported where you don’t really know the quality of it.
“By bringing in imported products you are actually increasing global carbon due to more carbon-intensive manufacturing abroad and the emissions from shipping the product to the UK.”
Ceramics UK has drawn up a detailed roadmap explaining how it will hit the 2050 target, but much depends on support from Government, including steps to reduce electricity costs, support with upgraded grid connection and ongoing research into electric heating and hydrogen use.
Most manufacturers are small or medium sized businesses and they are spread across the UK, making a universal solution more difficult. “Ceramic manufacturing is one of, if not perhaps the hardest, of industrial processes to decarbonise”, the trade body warns.
Mr Flello said: “The industry is trying. We have members that do use a lot of electricity in the kilns, because certain tableware you can fire with electricity.
“But when it comes to clay bricks, for example, and a lot of other products you have got to use a tunnel kiln – this is a continuous operation and gas-fired.”
Research was ongoing to electrify this, but Mr Flello said, “aside from the massive amount of electricity you are going to use, the technology isn’t quite there yet.
“We have proven with some experimental work that you can fire clay brick with hydrogen, but in terms of commercial scale roll out of tunnel kilns, that’s still to be proven. “The technology isn’t necessarily in place on a commercial scale.”
The current Net Zero path for the industry sees a step curve now that flattens out as we approach 2050.
A better approach, Mr Flello says, would be a shallower path in the current climate, with accelerated progress as we near the deadline.
“But the government, if anything, are going the other way.” He added: “I would hope that it’s because not enough thought has gone into it, rather than it being a deliberate policy of getting rid of heavy industry in the UK to achieve a unilateral carbon target.
“I hope this is oversight rather than an underlying plan.” He said he would like to see “a pause and a realistic appraisal of what’s achievable”.
Without a change of course, he warned, the Net Zero demands on top of the economic climate left the industry facing a perfect storm.
“If the gas price continues to stay high, if nothing is done about electricity costs, if the UK Net Zero carbon taxes and Emissions Trading Scheme carries on getting tougher, if the cost of diesel stays high, if customers in the Middle East think ‘I don’t want it at the moment’, if the customer base dries up – yes, they could destroy what’s left of the UK ceramics industry.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We know this will be a difficult time for Denby workers and their families and recognise the challenges potteries and ceramics businesses across the country face, which is why we regularly meet with Ceramics UK and trade unions to discuss support.
“Our new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme will reduce electricity bills by up to 25 per cent for over 7,000 manufacturing businesses, and the industry will be able to respond when we consult on any potential changes to the Supercharger scheme later this year.”