Jon PENNYCOOKSteel as essential for defence: 'Britain’s steelworks are anyway not entirely self-sufficient. They rely on imports of coal and iron ore from countries like Australia, Brazil, South Africa and Sweden. Nor were they self-sufficient in times of war. In the period leading up to the second world war, Britain sourced large quantities of iron from Sweden to make weapons'
'At its peak in the 1970s, Britain was the world’s fifth-largest producer of steel. Cities like Sheffield, not far from Scunthorpe, became world-renowned for their steel, which went into major infrastructure projects such as Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Today Britain’s steel production relative to the size of its economy is on par with that of the Philippines and Tanzania.'
Adam Trickett 
@jonpsp indeed. The UK only had small iron ore deposits but plenty of coal and the military power to take ore from other countries at gun point to maintain an industry out of it.
The UK was lucky to industrialise first otherwise it would never have been the superpower it was. A few decades of advantage made a huge difference over Napoleon.