Posted on 04/14/2025 6:38:38 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
China is no longer welcome in Britain's steel sector after the government had to pass emergency legislation on Saturday to ensure control of Chinese-owned British Steel, business minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday.
Reynolds said the refusal of China's Jingye Group to accept a roughly 500 million pound ($654 million) government aid package last week to stop irrevocable damage to blast furnaces left the government with no alternative to intervening directly.
British Steel was not immediately available for comment outside office hours.
Against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, Reynolds said in an interview with Sky News.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe - which need to be constantly fueled and are losing 700,000 pounds a day - would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
Previous British governments had been "naive" to allow Chinese companies to be involved in the steel sector, Reynolds said.
Large industrial companies such as Jingye Group had direct links to the Chinese Communist Party and China's government would understand why Jingye's proposal was unacceptable to Britain, he added.
"You've got to be clear about what is the sort of sector where we can promote, cooperate; and ones, frankly, where we can't. I wouldn't personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector. I think steel is a very sensitive area," he said.
Jingye bought British Steel from the government in 2020 after the company became insolvent.
Since coming to office in 2024, the Labour government has stepped up engagement with China after tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and latterly restrictions on investment over security concerns.
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The Trump Effect.
May it spread far and wide.
Britain was no more naive than the US. Time to take off the rose colored glasses.
The UK has woken up?
Yeah, and I suspect there will be a domino effect, hopefully.
There was someone that replied to me earlier that insinuated that the world would end without China. (Not quite that graphic, but I am on my iPad, and it is a PITA to look it up.)
What shape is the Panama Canal in, after 25 years of management by China?
It would be a great project, restoring it for permanent American control.
Trying to understand this . . .
Why did China reject a ~$654 million aid offer to keep their British plant functional? Were they really on purpose trying to prevent Britain from refining their own steel (with the China owned plant)?
Nigel Farage was out front calling for nationalizaton then Keir Starmer saw Farage’s party ahead of his in the polls and the rest is history.
Hopefully yes.
“Were they really on purpose trying to prevent Britain from refining their own steel (with the China owned plant)?”
As the British say this is “obvious as dog balls”.
And now the government has bought it back again. The British steel industry is dead. They're simply moving the corpse from place to place rather than burying it.
We’re only making plans for Nigel
He has his future in a British Steel
We’re only making plans for Nigel
Nigel’s whole future is as good as sealed, yeah
“The UK has woken up?”
The Arabs will be taking over shortly.
” Chinese-owned British Steel “
XTC. Very good.
By new British standards, saying this sounds like a hate crime to me.
Yes
Who do we root for?
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