British Steel might resolve to close Scunthorpe plant in days | EUROtoday

Decisions taken inside the subsequent few days will decide whether or not British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant stays open, the BBC understands.

The plant’s Chinese proprietor, Jingye, has cancelled two cargo shipments of coking coal for the location’s two blast furnaces and it has not but paid for iron pellets which are scheduled to reach subsequent week.

Without coal and iron ore, the blast furnaces will shut down inside weeks.

Last week British Steel launched a session on the proposed closure of its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, placing as much as 2,700 jobs in danger.

It has been assembly with the commerce unions Community, GMB and Unite.

The GMB’s nationwide officer, Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, stated {that a} union assembly with employees on Wednesday had proven that ”Jingye has no intention of operating the plant responsibly. Nationalisation is now the one possibility to avoid wasting UK steel-making.”

Sources close to the consultation accuse Jingye of deliberately undermining talks to save the plant by closing down the supply of raw materials.

British Steel said: “We should not in a position to remark at the moment”.

British Steel has been owned by Jingye since 2020. The Chinese firm says it has invested more than £1.2bn into British Steel to maintain operations and claims it has suffered financial losses of about £700,000 a day.

Zengwei An, the company’s chief executive, said the launch of the consultation process had been “a mandatory determination given the massively difficult circumstances the enterprise faces”, including the imposition of US tariffs and higher environmental costs.

The BBC reported last week that the company had drawn up a £2bn investment plan and that it had expected the government to contribute half.

The BBC understands that British Steel recently rejected a government offer of £500m.

There are growing calls for the government to nationalise the company.

On Tuesday, North Lincolnshire Council voted unanimously in favour of the company being brought back into public ownership, while last week in Parliament, Conservative MPs and the deputy leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, also called for nationalisation.

Questioned on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme this morning, business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds MP, said he was ”strongly committed to the UK having a steel industry” and that he was making sure ”we are closely engaged on this issue”.

However declined to comment on reports that public ownership was being actively considered by ministers, saying to BBC Radio 4: “We are speaking to the corporate. It’s in personal possession, that’s the scenario that we have now inherited, we’re looking for a means by means of that.”

“I do know for the workforce specifically this can be a actually tough time,” he added.