Raw materials arrive at British Steel

The coking coal and iron ore needed to keep the furnaces burning at British Steel have arrived in Scunthorpe.

The shipment from the US, which arrived at Immingham yesterday, coincided with a visit to the plant from business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, who told reporters that “steel is a sensitive sector”.

The BBC reported that Reynolds admitted that the government would be cautious about Chinese companies investing in steel. He said: “I think you would look at a Chinese firm in a different way”.

“[Steel] is a sensitive sector around the world and a lot of the issues in the global economy with steel coming from over-production and dumping of steel products, and that does come from China.”

Reynolds visit came after the government announced that it has appointed Allan Bell has interim chief executive while Lisa Coulson has been named as  chief commercial officer.

Workers in Scunthorpe breathed a sigh of relief at the weekend after emergency legislation was passed to place British Steel under government control.

In an unprecedented move, MPs were called back from their easter recess on Saturday to vote on new laws to stop British Steel’s Chinese owner, Jingye, from closing the two blast furnaces at the Scunthorpe site.

While stopping short of full nationalisation, the new laws gave the government the right to buy the raw materials needed to keep the furnaces going while it seeks a private buyer.

Jingye has stopped sourcing raw materials to keep the furnaces ablaze. After the legislation was passed, it was reported that officials from Jingye were blocked from entering the British Steel site by workers, with the GMB union saying the employees were ‘legitimately concerned about sabotage’.

Jingye announced back in February that it was launching a consultation which could lead to the closure of its two blast furnaces threatening between 2,000 and 2,700 jobs.

The company said the blast furnaces are “no longer financially sustainable” and it was losing around £700,000 a day.

Last week there were calls for immediate nationalisation after the Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce said its sources had revealed the winding down of its furnaces has already begun.

Dr Ian Kelly, chief executive of the chamber, said that the chamber’s sources indicate that a ‘salamander tap operation’ is underway which means that one of the two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe is subject to a complex engineering process which involves winding down the furnace for maintenance.

While the furnace could begin operating again if the operation was done correctly, there are fears that the Chinese owners, Jingye, will not restart it.

The Scunthorpe blast furnaces are the last ones in the country after the Tata Steel owned site at Port Talbot was closed. The UK’s ability to make virgin steel is of vital national importance and is seen by business leaders as pivotal for the country’s future defence and security, especially with the current turmoil in the geo-political world.

If the two British Steel furnaces are closed, the UK would be the only non-steelmaking country in the G7.