The U.K. government said Tuesday that it had bought enough raw materials to keep Britain’s last steelmaking blast furnaces operating for the “coming weeks.”
The announcement came amid fears that the government’s decision to wrest control of British Steel from its Chinese owners would deepen tensions between the U.K. and China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday warned against “politicizing” the issue as British officials raised concerns about Chinese investment in strategic industries.
The issue has dominated British politics since Saturday, when Prime Minister Keir Starmer recalled lawmakers from their spring recess so Parliament could pass emergency legislation allowing the government to take operational control of British Steel.
That move was spurred by reports that the company’s owners, China’s Jingye Group, were trying to shut down steelmaking operations in Scunthorpe, northern England, by starving the plant of the iron ore and coking coal needed to keep the blast furnaces operating. That raised the prospect that Britain would lose its last plant capable of making high-quality steel from scratch because once blast furnaces are shut down it is difficult and expensive to restart them.
The Department for Business and Trade said shipments of the raw materials that had been waiting at the port of Immingham will be unloaded on Tuesday after the government agreed to pay for them. A separate shipment is on the way from Australia after the government resolved a legal dispute with Jingye.
“After intensive work over the weekend, the government has secured coke and iron ore pellets for the blast furnaces and is confident there will be enough materials to keep the furnaces burning,” the department said in a statement.
While Jingye remains the owner of British Steel, the government has said temporary nationalization is likely as it looks for other investors to rescue the company.
A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry on Monday warned Britain to treat Jingye fairly and avoid “politicizing and over-securitizing” the issue, “so as not to affect the confidence of Chinese enterprises in investing and cooperating in the U.K.”
