Raw materials secured by the UK government have arrived to keep British Steel blast furnaces burning after a race to save the company’s Scunthorpe plant.
UK ministers have taken control of the firm to ensure supplies such as coking coal and iron ore reach the site after talks with its Chinese owner, Jingye, broke down.
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will visit the Lincolnshire port of Immingham, where materials from two ships are being unloaded and transported to the plant.
The supplies, sent from the US, are enough to keep the furnaces running for weeks, the Department for Business and Trade said, adding that they have been paid for out of its existing budget.
The shipment was welcomed by steelworkers’ union Community, which said the arrival of the materials is a “huge relief” after Jingye’s “disgraceful actions” risked thousands of job losses, while British Steel said it offers “great hope” for the future.
It came after Downing Street said the Government was “confident” it would be able to secure the products necessary to keep the site running, and that work was continuing to get a “steady pipeline” of materials.
A third ship carrying coking coal and iron ore is on its way to the UK from Australia after a legal dispute between British Steel and Jingye was resolved.
“We will always act in the interest of working people and UK industry. Thanks to the work of those at British Steel, and in my department, we have moved decisively to secure the raw materials we need to help save British Steel,” Mr Reynolds said.
“Our industries depend on UK steel and – thanks to our Plan for Change – demand is set to shoot up, helping build the 1.5 million homes, railways, schools and hospitals we need to usher in a decade of national renewal,” he added.
The raw materials are necessary to prevent the cooling of the blast furnaces, which would risk irreparable damage to the plant systems.
The UK government passed emergency legislation designed to support the site on Saturday after talks with Jingye failed to reach a resolution.
Mr Reynolds has said the firm’s plans to stop ordering new raw materials to keep the plant running and sell off supplies it already had prompted the Government into action.
Meanwhile, Beijing has accused the UK of “politicising” trade co-operation, and suggested its companies could be put off investing in Britain if they are not treated “fairly”.
The Business Secretary said at the weekend that he would not want to bring a Chinese firm into the steel sector again, though industry minister Sarah Jones did not rule out doing so.
Ms Jones said having a pragmatic relationship with Beijing, the world’s second biggest economy, is still important.
“When it comes to infrastructure, we will make sure on a case-by-case basis that we are not letting anything get in the way of our national security and that we are applying those stringent tests,” she said.
Asked if the UK government would rule out another Chinese partner for the plant after taking control from Jingye, Ms Jones told Sky News: “At the moment, I’m not going to say yes or no to anything that isn’t at the moment on the table or being looked at.”
Downing Street said it had become “clear” during talks that the Chinese owners “wanted to shut the blast furnaces”.
But No 10 said it was not aware of any “sabotage” at the plant, when asked if there were any concerns that officials from Jingye may have purposefully attempted to shut down the furnaces.
British Steel has appointed interim executives as efforts continue to try to secure its future.
Alasdair McDiarmid, assistant general secretary of the Community union, said UK government intervention had “headed off (a) profound threat to our country”.
“It’s a huge relief that this crucial and overdue shipment of coke has arrived at Immingham this morning. We thank the Prime Minister and Business Secretary for their decisive actions to secure the raw materials required to keep the blast furnaces running,” he said.
“Our members lost confidence in Jingye a long time ago, and recent events have proven the Chinese were never a fit and proper owner for a strategically critical business like British Steel,” he said.
“It beggars belief, but we now know Jingye were starving our furnaces of raw materials so they could end steelmaking at Scunthorpe and feed our rolling mills from their operations in China,” he addeed.
British Steel said in a statement: “Today, we are pleased to confirm that vital raw materials are being unloaded at our port facility, Immingham Bulk Terminal. They will then be transported to our headquarters in Scunthorpe to support our iron and steelmaking operations”.
It also said that other raw materials are on their way.
“While this remains a challenging period for British Steel colleagues, we now have great hope.
We’d like to thank the UK government, our customers, suppliers and industry peers for their unflinching support. And above all, we’d like to recognise the incredible efforts of our employees – the finest steelmakers in the world,” it added.
