It seems the UK steel industry may have been almost victim to Chinese "sabotage" of a plant they owned? How does that work? Is every private equity company involved in sabotage?
Race to save British Steel factory after Chinese firm’s ‘sabotage’
Government officials and British Steel staff are in a desperate race to save its blast furnaces after what ministers believe was a plot to sabotage the S****horpe plant by its Chinese owners.
The government dramatically took control of the company on Saturday, kicking off a frantic hunt for the securing essential raw materials, including coking coal and iron ore, needed to keep the two blast furnaces at the S****horpe plant operational.
Once the furnaces are turned off, it is practically impossible to bring them back online, and officials believe British Steel’s Chinese owner Jingye had been planning to let the raw materials run out in a bid to sabotage the plant, shuttering the blast furnaces and making the UK reliant on Chinese exports of so-called virgin steel.
On Sunday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said Chinese firms should be barred from investing in some sectors, including those vital to national security and key infrastructure.
“I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector,” he added, noting that British Steel fell into Chinese hands under Boris Johnson.
He refused to guarantee the furnaces will continue running, claiming the plant's Chinese owners, Jingye, had "accelerated" the shut down of one furnace.
He said: "The raw materials, the shipments have arrived, they're in the UK, they're nearby. There were questions about getting them into the blast furnaces, that is what the officials are focused on right now."
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB union national officer, said she is "wholly reassured" that the coking coal bound for the furnaces at S****horpe will be "paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days" at Immingham Bulk Terminal as part of efforts to avert the permanent shutdown of Britain's last primary steelmaking plant.
Jingye, British Steel’s Chinese owners, had not only stopped ordering raw materials but had begun selling off existing supplies, sparking concerns the plant could close within days.
The offers of support from other businesses also mean that British Steel is reassessing its options.
This includes possibly reversing Jingye’s decision to take one of the blast furnaces temporarily offline as early as Monday using a “salamander tap”, a procedure said to be dangerous.
It came as the business secretary approved the appointment of two long-standing employees to run the business on an interim basis.
Salamander Tapping
Salamander tapping of a blast furnace is the final tap after the furnace is blown down in order to drain the last liquid iron from the furnace hearth.
