Posted on 04/12/2025 11:23:07 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
London says it acted to prevent the plant’s Chinese owners from closing the plant, threatening jobs and national security.
The British government moved swiftly on Saturday to take control of operations at the country’s last large crude steel producing facility, in what appeared to be a major step toward nationalizing the plant.
In an unusual and dramatic move, the government had summoned lawmakers back from vacation on Saturday to approve the government’s emergency legislation.
The government said it was acting to prevent the owners of the British Steel complex in Scunthorpe, a Chinese company called Jingye, from taking steps unilaterally to close the blast furnaces, potentially costing 2,700 jobs.
“Steel is fundamental to Britain’s industrial strength, to our security and to our identity as a primary global power,” Jonathan Reynolds, the business and trade secretary, told Parliament on Saturday in introducing the legislation.
Despite the interest in preserving steel making now, it has long been in decline in Britain. Crude steel output has fallen by about 50 percent over the last decade, according to UK Steel, a trade group.
The industry in Britain struggles with high energy costs as well as competition, mainly from China, which now makes more than half of all global steel.
The 25 percent tariffs that President Trump recently imposed on steel imported into the United States have added a further hurdle.
In this difficult environment, the government of Prime Minister Keir Starmer now risks being stuck with supporting a business whose owners say is losing 700,000 pounds a day or around $915,000.
The government insists that it is not nationalizing British Steel, but it is asserting control over the board and management and, it seems, taking responsibility for the running costs.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
But I am sure the engineers in the British House of Parliament will know more than the Chinese steelmakers about steelmaking.
More windmills!
Idiots. Energy drives everything.
if great Britain had to build warships again, as in their last, all they’d have is wooden sailing ships. even the cannons would have come from somewhere else. china maybe?
That’ll sure fix everything - government control. Says a lot.
It’s tough to make Steel without coal.
The Limey Subjects did Nazi the Globalist Homos coming!
Bad teeth and raging atheistic pederasts is all that is left of once great Britain.
Probably the only people who could be worse at making steel than the Chinese.
“...all they’d have is wooden sailing ships”
Are the Brits fighting communism with socialism again?
Destroy the industrial base or let the government run it. Might be better to let it die.
Don’t worry the government will slowly destroy it the most expensive way possible. The only good in that approach is by going slowly it might at some point be retrievable.
What do the British need steel for anyway? Everything is illegal. The Muslims certainly have a use for steel, though.
The Royal Navy might beat Luxembourg.
And we will nationalise the wealthy companies
And all the directors will be answerable to me
There’ll be no shirking of responsibilities
They harvested the old oaks and they would take a long time to replace and I don’t think they have started the process of replacing them.
Way to go Brit lain!
You’ll make the cholera epidemic look like fun.
To be kept alive on British taxpayer money.
It’s tough to make Steel without coal.
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That depends on what you are referring to.... Approximately 70% of the steel manufactured in the United States is made from recycled steel (ratio of scrap used as feedstock to total steel production).
Even for steel made in basic oxygen furnaces, approximately 25% scrap is used for the feedstock.
The Crown doesn’t need that steel for warships - they’re fighting their wars with debt pressed onto U.S. taxpayers and their descendants.
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