London (AP) – United Kingdom legislators returned to Parliament from their Easter break on Saturday to approve an emergency rescue of the last reference factory of the country that produces steel from scratch.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer summoned legislators for the highly unusual seated to discuss a bill intended to block Chinese owners of British Steel, Jingye Group, to close the two massive underpants in Key Stelhowing.
If the bill happens, what is expected, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds will have the power to direct the company’s board and workforce, ensure that its 2,700 workers receive payment and request the raw materials necessary to keep the underfrews in operation.
The decision to introduce emergency legislation received an additional urgency for the recent Jingye movement to cancel the orders of the iron granules used in the high ovens. Without pellets and other raw materials, such as coke coal, they would like to close forever, potentially in a matter of days, since the furnaces are extremely widespread and expensive to restart once they have cooled.
That would mean that the United Kingdom would be the only country in the group of seven industrial nations the ability to make its own from scratch instead of tear. The repercussions would be huge for industries such as construction, defense and rail.
“In this situation, with the clock that was reduced, not doing anything was not an option,” Reynolds told legislators. “We could not, we will not and we will never remain unstable, while the heat filters of the high furnaces of the United Kingdom without planning, due process or any respect for the consequences, and that is why I needed cockleages here today.”
Reynolds said that the legislation does not transfer the property of the plant to the state, but admitted that it was a possible discussion for a future and possible date “probable.” Hello, he also confirmed that, given the financial difficulties of steel, its current market value was effectively zero.
He is an uncle of what role Jingye, owner of British Steel since 2020, will have in the daily functioning of the Steelworks once the legislation is approved. But if it did not comply with the new laws, the company and its executives would face a legal sanction.
Jingye, who has said that the Scunthorpe plant is unsustainable financial due to “challenging market conditions” and the increase in environmental costs, has sought for months a government rescue, but discussions have failed a false result. Last month’s decision for the president of the United States, Donald Trump, to impose 25% of tariffs in imported steel was another blow.
At its peak in the postwar period, British Steelmaching was a world leader, using more than 300,000 people, before the cheapest offers in China and other countries came to production. It is now the use of about 40,000 directly, with the industry that represents only 0.1% of the British economy.
Great Britain’s steel modifiers are under pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Most have moved to electric arc ovens that make steel from recycled material. That has left Scunthorpe as the only factory with underpants to make the so -called virgin steel.
The last time the legislators were called their recess to sit on a Saturday was in 1982, after the invasion of Argentina of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
