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British officials rush to guarantee access to coal and iron ore supplies to ensure that the first last two remaining fractures remain operational after the adoption of emergency legislation to maintain British steel.
British officials have been on the company’s Scunthorpe site since Saturday, working closely with the local management of British Steel to guarantee new cargoes of coke and iron ore to continue production, the Ministry of Business and Trade said on Monday.
The government rushes to prevent the cooling of high stoves to the point where it can no longer run. Reluuming them again is not impossible, but it is an expensive and long process.
An expedition of coal, necessary to light the ovens, was moored in the port of Immingham in Lincolnshire on Sunday, having been ordered but not paid by the Chinese owner of British Steel, Jingye Group, according to two people informed of the situation.
The closure of the two ovens by British Steel in Scanthorpe would leave the United Kingdom as the only G20 country without the possibility of making steel from zero.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer took the extraordinary measure to recall the Parliament on Saturday during the recess of Easter to adopt emergency legislation allowing the United Kingdom to take control of the British Steel operations in Jingye.
The new law gives government powers to control management and factory workers to ensure that production continues.
While Jingye remains the main shareholder for the moment, legislation is a key step on the way to the nationalization of British steel.
“My team is already working hard in the field to continue jobs and burning ovens,” said business secretary Jonathan Reynolds on Monday. “We are going to state a long-term plan to co-invest with the private sector to ensure that steel in the United Kingdom has a brilliant and sustainable future.”
Reynolds said during the weekend that his favorite option would be to find a private sector partner to help finance the transformation of British Steel, the most likely option was full nationalization.
He said shareholders would receive a fair market rate in the event of nationalization, but added: “In this case, the market value is actually zero.”
An official said that there were other transit raw material shipments to the United Kingdom and that the government was trying to make sure they arrived at the Imminent Scantinpe factory.
British Steel also reassessed if it was possible to reverse a decision made by Jingye de Ralenti’s leaders one of the ovens on a temporary basis, one of the familiar people with the case said.
The local steel management planned to work with other industry players to secure raw materials.
According to the government.
The ministers intervened to preserve Steelmaking primary in the United Kingdom and to protect 3,500 jobs in the sector.
Reynolds was not able to confirm on Sunday that the government would certainly be able to obtain enough raw materials to keep the ovens to burn.
He said Jingye’s “conscious decision” to sell existing raw material supplies was the important change that forced the government to intervene.
Recognizing the sensitivity of the steel industry to strategic national interests, Reynolds said: “I would not personally bring a Chinese company in our steel sector.”
When asked if there was a “high confidence bar” for Chinese companies controlling British companies, he said: “Yes, we have to recognize it.”
Reynolds told Sky News that if the government could trust Chinese companies after the management of British steel Jingye would depend on the sectors in which they have operated.
He said: “I think we have to be clear about the kind of sector where, in fact, we can promote and cooperate, and those frankly where we cannot.”
The government’s intervention led to a new control of the decision of the former conservative administration to sell the last strategic steel group of the United Kingdom to a Chinese company in 2020.
The chief of the United Kingdom reform, Nigel Farage, said that Jingye was clearly “a bad actor” and criticized the conservatives, saying to the BBC on Sunday: “They actually gave a strategic industry to a foreign adversary.”
Jingye did not immediately respond to a request for comments.
