Factories along the Humber and on Teesside got a rare piece of cost relief today. On Monday 27 October 2025 the UK’s Trade Remedies Authority published its intended recommendation to revoke the countervailing measure on imports of continuous filament glass fibre products from Egypt. The watchdog says there’s no domestic producer to protect and that lifting the charge could trim import bills for users across wind, marine and automotive. A short consultation runs until 11:59pm GMT on 10 November 2025.

‘The new technology will allow valuable glass fibre and carbon fibre components to be used in the future,’ said Andy Sykes, who runs Siemens Gamesa’s blade plant in Hull, speaking to the BBC last month about recyclable blades. It’s a reminder that material costs ripple through every blade the region turns out.

Crucially, there is no UK production left of the glass fibre categories covered by this measure - the basis for the TRA’s position that no domestic industry would be injured by Egyptian imports. That became reality when Nippon Electric Glass shut Electric Glass Fiber UK in Hindley Green, Wigan, with production ending in late June and around 250 jobs lost.

For the Humber’s offshore wind cluster, glass fibre is bought by the tonne and used daily. The UK imported over £35m of glass fibre in 2024, with Egypt supplying 7.5% by value. At the same time, the Hull blade factory is scaling up - ‘We now employ over 1,300 people at the site,’ said Siemens Energy’s Darren Davidson, as the plant supplies 108‑metre blades for RWE’s Sofia project off the Yorkshire coast. Savings on reinforcements help keep those lines moving.

Beyond offshore wind, glass fibre remains the workhorse for thousands of moulded parts across the Midlands automotive supply chain and in North East boatyards. Composites UK’s showcase at WMG in June underlined how carmakers and tier‑ones still rely on glass‑based composites for cost‑sensitive brackets, housings and panels - less glamorous than carbon, but often the difference between profit and loss on a project.

The Egyptian measure is one of 43 the UK carried over from the EU. The TRA opened this transition review on 20 March 2025 and had already narrowed scope in 2024 by removing mats made of glass fibre filaments. The goods still in play are chopped strands up to 50mm and glass fibre rovings, excluding impregnated or coated rovings with loss on ignition above 3% (ISO 1887).

This proposal doesn’t touch separate trade defences on Chinese glass fibre. Anti‑dumping and countervailing duties on rovings and chopped strands from China remain in force until 30 January 2026, so buyers will still need to watch origin and paperwork.

If ministers accept the TRA’s recommendation, the removal would take effect from 26 June 2025 - the date the measure would have expired without a review. Importers will want clarity from HMRC on how entries since that date will be handled; in the meantime, manufacturers should press suppliers to pass through any savings line‑by‑line on invoices and respond via the Trade Remedies Service before 10 November.

Cheaper inputs help, but they don’t fix everything. Energy and financing costs remain the bigger drag on heavy materials businesses, as British Glass noted when it welcomed moves to narrow the UK‑EU electricity price gap this summer. And in offshore wind, companies are eyeing the government‑backed £1bn supply‑chain drive. Policy only lands when it cuts bills on the shop floor in Grimsby, Hull and Redcar - this move is a start.