To cut and pates from a post of mine elsewhere on the net:-

The Steel Industry in 1979 required a bailout of £1.8billion from the taxpayer to cover losses. Given that the price of a pint of ale was about 25p to 30p and is now well in excess of £3.00, that is the equivalent of over £20billion today.

The steel industry had VAST over production problems no one was previously prepared to face. Most of the production at plants like Ravenscraig was going into storage in open air stockyards and either waiting up to 24 months for dispatch to Vauxhaul, BL or Fords, or being scrapped and going back into the smelters.

That habit of sending steel sheet out to the customer that had been stored for so long was one of the causes of the poor reputation the British Car Industry had for rust.

Going to alternative suppliers, who were rolling to order, during the 1980 steel strike opened the customers eyes to the poor quality product British Steel was providing because of the stockpiling policy and was the death knell of large parts of the industry.

What was left was a much smaller, but much healthier steel industry more matched to it's market.