UK government may not be able to save last blast furnaces as Chinese owners sabotage British Steel

Whatever the outcome, coal-fired steelmaking is doomed in Great Britain

British Steel’s Chinese owners steal remaining coal stocks to sabotage blast furnaces

The UK government seized control of British Steel from its Chinese owner Saturday but it may be too late to save the blast furnaces from fatal cool-down, says the business secretary.

The emergency legislation empowered plant workers to prevent Jingye bosses from sabotaging the blast furnaces and the Chinese executives were duly prevented from entering the plant site.

The urgency is securing metallurgical coal and iron ore to recharge Britain’s last two blast furnaces before they cool and irrevocably damage the aged infrastructure. The government hopes to save the blast furnaces temporarily to keep production flowing while it converts the plant to electric arc furnaces.

Jingye said it wanted instead to buy raw steel from China for the plant’s rolling mills which provide nearly all rail to Britain’s railway network.

“It might not be sabotage, it might be neglect,” (Business Secretary Jonathan) Reynolds told the BBC on Sunday. “The conscious decision not just to not order raw materials but to sell existing supplies of raw materials is the significant change that required the government to step in.”

Reynolds said the costs to the economy of closing the plant and losing the country’s steelmaking capacity – plus the major job losses it entailed – would have been at least £1bn, more than the losses expected from nationalising the plant.”

The minister said there was no guarantee that fresh supplies could be delivered in time to save the blast furnaces.

Link to full story in The Guardian . . .

---