Merryn Talks Money (Bloomberg)

Episode: The ‘Boring’ Industries the UK Can’t Afford to Lose

Host: Merryn Somerset Webb
Guest: Ed Conway, Economics Editor of Sky News and author of Material World
Date: February 9, 2026

Episode Overview

This week, Merryn Somerset Webb discusses the understated but critical importance of the UK’s so-called "boring" foundational industries—specifically chemicals, salt, and essential manufacturing—with Ed Conway. The conversation highlights a concerning trend: the rapid shutdown of key industrial plants across the UK and Europe, the national and economic security risks posed by increased dependence on imports, and what steps are needed to halt or reverse these trends. The tone is thoughtful, sometimes urgent, with intermittent optimism about British engineering heritage and innovation.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why “Boring” Physical Industries Matter

• Physical goods as the base of modern economies:

  • Everything—from data centers to pharmaceutical drugs—depends on foundational industrial products like chemicals, concrete, and metals.
  • Ed Conway (03:34): “We underplay the extent to which every piece of economic activity out there depends one way or another on some form of physical stuff coming out of the ground being turned into a product we need.”
  • High-tech industries (e.g., Nvidia) still rely on others to physically manufacture their designs.

• Reality check about global supply chains:

  • A long period of deindustrialization led to the view that critical materials would always be available on demand from abroad.
  • This is now at risk due to higher global competition for resources, threats to shipping, and geopolitical instability.

2. The Silent Crisis: Decline of the UK and Europe’s Chemical Sector

• Shocking rate of plant closures:

  • 10% of Europe’s chemical production capacity has shut in 3 years. Entire sectors are disappearing rapidly, with the UK particularly exposed.
  • Ed Conway (04:45): “You would be staggered at the speed with which we are shutting things down… I’m just shocked at the extent to which this is all happening and people aren’t more kind of nervous about it, really.”

• Salt as a bellwether:

  • Salt is essential for human health, pharmaceuticals, and many other sectors.
  • The UK has historically been self-sufficient in salt due to its unique geology, but only two plants remain, one “on its last legs." If these close, the UK will import salt for the first time since civilization began.
  • Ed Conway (09:08): “Without salt, we are in big trouble … Since the beginning of civilization, we have been self-sufficient for salt. And the point of this film was to say right now quite a few plants have shut down … If it doesn’t get put in [investment], then Britain has the very real chance that in the next few years we are going to become dependent on imports of salt, the most important of all chemicals.”

3. Structural Challenges: Energy Costs & Investment

• Investment crunch amid soaring energy costs:

  • The chemical industry is highly energy-intensive. UK and European energy costs are now structurally higher, especially since Russian gas supplies ceased.
  • This makes necessary reinvestment and modernization almost impossible for many plants.

• False choices in net-zero targets:

  • China and the US combine net-zero efforts with relentless domestic production using any available energy, including coal.
  • Europe’s single-minded pursuit of net-zero, without comparable energy realism, risks dependence on dirty imports and undermines security.
  • Ed Conway (15:58): “It just feels like in Europe we’ve kind of forgotten that you need that part of it. And we’re just aiming for the kind of the net zero part of it. … If that is the case, fine, but you are just going to become incredibly dependent on everyone else.”

4. National Security & Strategic Autonomy

• Essential for defense:

  • Chemicals like nitrogen (for explosives and fertilizer) and sulfuric acid are fundamental, yet UK plants for both have shut.
  • Ed Conway (21:10): “In this country, we used to have a plant making sulfuric acid. We’ve shut it down. We used to have a plant making nitrogen. We’ve shut it down. These are the two main things we need to make the explosives that supposedly we're going to start making in this country, and yet they're gone.”

• Security risks of deindustrialization:

  • Too few in government appear to recognize how deep the risks run if supply chains are disrupted.

5. The Cost of Taking Action & The Price of Inaction

• Rebuilding will be vastly more expensive later:

  • Once domestic industry is dismantled, recreating it costs far more than maintaining it.
  • Ed Conway (22:17): “Will there be some points, you know, in five, ten years time in the future where it’s like, okay, well, that was a silly thing that we allowed ourselves to do? Let’s rebuild this. Oh, it turns out actually it’s going to cost kind of 3 billion rather than the kind of, you know, £500,000 that it might have done before.”

• Cheap imports vs. security:

  • The public is accustomed to cheap imports, but greater self-sufficiency in critical goods means higher costs.
  • Ed Conway (28:26): “If you then want to have more national security and more stuff made domestically, then things are going to be quite a bit more expensive. And are we ready to pay for that right now? And probably most consumers are not ready.”

6. Government Policy: Securonomics & What Needs to Change

• Lack of holistic approach:

  • Despite nice rhetoric (“securonomics”) and some recent interventions, the government lacks a joined-up policy to identify and protect critical industries.
  • Ed Conway (25:48): “I think politicians, they make lots of good kind of encouraging noises about this stuff… The problem is that it’s not particularly evident that’s what the government is actually kind of… their guiding principle.”
  • Recent emergency government funding for a single ethylene plant saved the last 10% of the sector, with 90% already gone.

• Suggested first step:

  • Simply understanding and mapping the essential industrial building blocks for UK prosperity should be a priority.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the hidden crisis:

  • Ed Conway (03:34): “The making of stuff is pretty important and the physical materials are pretty important. I think this is the critical kind of juncture… that world [of just-in-time supply] may not be the world that we’re living in in the coming decades.”

• Paradox of decarbonization:

  • Ed Conway (17:09): “If the net result [of Europe’s carbon targets] is actually to raise planetary carbon emissions rather than to lower them, this does seem like it’s a slightly perverse way of doing it.”

• On UK’s engineering heritage and hope:

  • Ed Conway (33:05): “The UK has always in particular been a place where we have come up with lots of exciting ideas … we should be able to [innovate] again. I think we’ve just kind of forgotten a little bit that we have this engineering heritage.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:34] – Physical manufacturing as the essential foundation for everything
• [04:45] – Speed and extent of plant closures in the UK and Europe
• [08:20] – The centrality of salt to industry and security
• [14:34] – High energy prices as a structural investment barrier
• [15:58] – Europe’s net zero approach vs. China/US, supply chain threats
• [21:10] – National security risks: closure of vital chemical plants
• [25:48] – What would policy to reverse the trend look like? Securonomics and its limits
• [28:26] – The price of sovereignty: higher costs for domestic manufacturing
• [33:05] – Optimism: potential for renewed British engineering and innovation

Takeaway

This episode delivers a compelling warning about the dangers of neglecting the UK’s (and Europe’s) foundational industries. It drives home that so-called “boring” sectors like chemicals—and even basic products like salt—are absolutely vital for health, security, and prosperity. Their disappearance under the radar portends higher costs, loss of strategic autonomy, and national vulnerability.

Yet, there’s a faint note of optimism: the UK’s track record in industrial ingenuity could provide a path forward, provided policymakers act now to protect and reinvest in critical infrastructure, perhaps rediscovering the nation’s engineering spirit.

Recommended for listeners interested in:

• Economics and industrial strategy
• UK and Europe’s geopolitical position
• Supply chain resilience
• National security through economic policy

End of Summary