[ad_1]
Government officials and British steel staff are in a desperate race to save his ovens, after what the ministers apparently were a plot to sabotage the Scunthorpe plant by its Chinese owners.
An important meeting is scheduled for Monday between the firm’s staff and civil servants aimed at rescuing Britain’s last primary steel manufacturing plant from permanent closure, which costs thousands of jobs.
The government took control of the company dramatically on Saturday and kicked off a ferocious hunt for the security of essential raw materials, including coal and iron ore, needed to implement the two ovens at the Scunthorpe plant.
Once the ovens are turned off, it is practically impossible to bring them back online, and officials believe that the Chinese owner of British Steel, Jingye, was planning to run out the raw materials in an attempt to sabotage the plant, close the ovens and allow the UK to depend on Chinese exports of the so -called virgin steel.
Luke de Pulford, executive director of the inter-parliamentary alliance in China, warned: “This is an explicit strategy of the Chinese Communist Party to undermine the industrial base of foreign countries.”
On Sunday, Jonathan Reynolds, business secretary, said Chinese firms should be banned from investing in some sectors, including the essential to national security and important infrastructure.
“I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector,” he added, noting that the British steel under Boris Johnson had fallen into Chinese hands.
Mr. Reynolds could not guarantee that the ovens could be saved, but said the plant took over that the government had given “a chance” to save it.
Dozens of businesses, including Tata and Rainham Steel, gathered to help British steel with offers of management support and raw materials after the government’s takeover.
Mr. Reynolds said: “When I said that steel manufacturing has a future in the UK, I mean it.
“That’s why we have passed these new powers to save British steel at Scunthorpe, which is why my team is already working hard to keep a job going and burning ovens.”
The need to secure raw materials and prevent the cooling of the ovens from the primary reason for the government that recalled parliament on Saturday to adopt emergency legislation to keep the site open.
Jingye, the Chinese owners of British Steel, not only stopped ordering raw materials, but began to sell existing supplies, which arose that the plant could close within days.
Officials from the Department of Affairs and Trade (DBT), along with the British steel staff, will spend Monday bringing material to the site, as well as ensuring staff is still paid, the department said.
The offers of support from other businesses also mean that British Steel is re -evaluating his options.
This includes that Jingye’s decision to temporarily take one of the ovens of the blast ovens already offline to take a “salamander tap”, a dangerous procedure.
Ministers are still hopeful that a private investor for British steel can be found, with the cost of modernizing the scunthorpe plant that is expected to amount to billions of pounds.
But this weekend Mr. Reynolds acknowledges that the full nationalization remained the most likely option in the short term.
He said: “Steel is essential for our national security and our ambitious plans for the housing, infrastructure and manufacturing sectors in the UK.
“We will set up a long -term plan to invest with the private sector to ensure that steel in the UK has a bright and sustainable future.”
However, the conservatives accused the government of acting “too late” and implementing a “bottled nationalization” after ignoring warnings about the risk of British steel.
Andrew Griffith, secretary of the shadows, said: “The labor government completely landed themselves in a steel crisis of their own cultivation. They made poor decisions and had the trade unions dictated their actions.”
[ad_2]
Source link
