London (AFP) – Britain’s government on Monday raced to secure raw materials to keep the country’s last steelmaking blast furnaces running, as Beijing warned the UK against politicising the takeover of Chinese-owned British Steel. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government swooped in on Saturday to prevent the closure of British Steel’s main plant in northern Scunthorpe after its Chinese owners Jingye halted orders of raw materials such as coking coal and iron ore. The Labour-run government must now secure the materials to keep the two blast furnaces at the plant — the last in the UK which makes steel from scratch — running. Government minister James Murray said officials were at the site on Monday.
“Their role is to make sure we do everything we can to …get those raw materials to the blast furnaces in time,” Murray told Times Radio. Other firms including Tata and Rainham Steel have also offered help securing supplies, the minister added. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs from the GMB trade union said she was “wholly reassured” that coking coal bound for the plant will be “paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days” at a nearby shipping terminal.
However, Murray and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds were unable to guarantee they would be able to keep the twin furnaces going. Blast furnaces are difficult to restart once switched off. Failure to secure enough supplies to keep them running could seriously damage the plant — and risk making Britain the only G7 country without virgin steelmaking capacity needed for everything from railways to bridges.
– China tensions –
“If we hadn’t acted, the blast furnaces were gone and in the UK primary steel production would have gone,” Reynolds said on Sunday. Reynolds said Jingye had turned down an offer of some £500 million to buy materials, instead requesting more than twice that amount with few guarantees the furnaces would stay open. Murray clarified Jingye’s actions “don’t speak to the actions of all Chinese companies”. A Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said the UK should “avoid politicising trade cooperation or linking it to security issues, so as not to impact the confidence of Chinese enterprises in going to the UK”.
Earlier on Sunday, Reynolds said the UK had been “naive” to allow its steel industry to be bought by the Chinese company, and that he “wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector”. Some opposition British MPs accused Beijing of interference — with Tory MP Christopher Chope accusing Jingye of “industrial sabotage”. However, the government tried to tread a fine line to avoid inflaming tensions and risk fragile — but improving — ties with China.
“It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect,” Reynolds told the BBC, clarifying that he did not believe Beijing had been involved in the recent events.
– ‘Sensitive’ –
While some sectors were “more sensitive than others”, a lot of “UK-Chinese trade is in non-contentious areas,” Reynolds added. Starmer’s administration has been at pains to improve relations with Beijing, with several high-ranking ministers holding bilateral talks in hopes of spurring economic growth. However, there are still security concerns and occasional spats, including over the weekend when a UK MP was denied entry into Hong Kong, sparking concerns from Britain’s foreign ministry.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion ($1.5 billion) to maintain operations, but was losing around £700,000 a day. The government saw its possible closure as a threat to Britain’s long-term economic security, given the decline of the UK’s once robust steel industry — and the threatened loss of some 2,700 jobs at the plant. The government, which stopped short of nationalising British Steel, is still hopeful of finding a private investor. “We want to find a private sector partner to co-invest,” Murray told Sky News, adding nationalisation remained a “very likely option”.
© 2024 AFP
