SCUNTHORPE, England: Britain expressed confidence on Monday (Apr 14) that it could secure enough raw materials to keep the blast furnaces at its last maker of virgin steel burning, after the government seized operational control from its Chinese owners.
Ministers said British Steel’s owners, China’s Jingye Group, had wanted to shut the furnaces at the Scunthorpe plant after they rejected a government funding proposal, which would have forced Britain to import steel instead.
The government recalled parliament at the weekend – the first Saturday recall since the 1982 Falklands War – to give it powers to direct the company’s board and workforce and to order raw materials.
By Monday morning, it had approved the appointment of an interim chief executive and chief commercial officer – both long-term employees of the plant – and said it had established that enough raw materials were in the country.
“We need to make sure we get it into the blast furnaces,” Treasury department minister James Murray said.
A number of businesses, including India’s Tata and local distributor Rainham Steel, had also offered managerial support and raw materials, the government said.
The dispute risks straining ties between London and Beijing, which Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government had sought to improve, at a time when nations around the world are trying to deepen trading cooperation after the US tariff shock.
Jingye has not commented, but China called for fair treatment of its companies and resolution through consultation.
“The facts on the ground are very clear that if we hadn’t taken the action that we did on Saturday, then the blast furnaces would be closing,” Murray said, calling steel production a national security matter.
The furnaces in the northeastern city of Scunthorpe need to be constantly fuelled and are losing 700,000 pounds (US$922,000) a day.
Their output is used in the rail network, construction and automotive industry. Without the plant, Britain would be reliant on imports at a time of trade wars and geopolitical instability.
The intervention at a site which employs 3,500 people and more in the supply chain prompted Britain’s business minister, Jonathan Reynolds, to say on Sunday that China was no longer welcome in Britain’s steel sector.
