A Small World -- Should UK SMEs Pay More Attention To International Risks

The timing could probably have been a lot better. Just as Britain was gearing up for a state visit by President Xi Jinping of China, the struggling steel industry was rocked by news of further plant closures and redundancies. To be more precise, industrial giant Tata announced the loss of 12,000 steel jobs in Yorkshire and Scotland while Caparo confirmed that administrators had been appointed to parts of its UK operation. It was a triple whammy. Just a few days earlier, Thai-owned steel maker had signaled the closure of a plant in Redcar, with the loss of 1,700 jobs.