British Steel’s high stoves should continue to run with delivery of enough raw materials to keep them on for the “weeks to come” on Tuesday, the government said.
The United States coal and iron ore will be discharged on the Immingham quays and transported to the SCUTHORPE site after a race for supplies.
A separate shipping of materials is back on the way to the United Kingdom from Australia after a legal dispute on which the cargo was resolved between the government and the owner of British Steel, Jingye.
The government took control of the business over the weekend following a ventilation of talks with its Chinese owner in the midst of accusations that it planned to extinguish the ovens.
If the ovens were hungry for fuel and were extinguished, the United Kingdom would no longer have the capacity to produce so-called virgin steel, due to the restart process of being extremely difficult and expensive.
Virgin steel manufacturing implies iron extracted from its original source to be purified and treated to manufacture all types of steel used in the main construction projects, such as new buildings and railways.
Scunthorpe ovens produce molten iron by dividing the rocks containing iron ore in a chemical reaction which requires intense heat. Even if the temperature of the Fournissus drops too low, it can cause permanent damage.
The government said that the United States’s materials would be enough to keep the ovens producing in steel for the coming weeks and that the officials added to “get a stable pipeline of materials to keep fire”.
The documents were paid by the government, but the cost was not revealed. The factory, which employs 2,700 people, would be in a “much better position” following the government’s intervention, according to union officials.
On Tuesday, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds will go to Immingham in northeast Lincolnshire where raw materials will be unloaded and transported to British Steel.
He said the government had “decisively” moved to secure the necessary raw materials to “help save British steel”, adding that British industries depended on the company.
Beijing accused the British government of “politicizing commercial cooperation” and said its decision to take control of British Steel had raised doubts about investment in the United Kingdom.
On Saturday, an emergency law was precipitated by the Parliament, giving the government control of the site to prevent Jingye from closing the ovens against the wishes of the ministers.
The government has appointed two longtime employees from British Steel to manage the factory provisionally.
The situation on the site has raised questions on Chinese investments in the industries that the government has considered strategically critical.
So far, the government has ceased to bring British Steel back in full public property, but has not excluded nationalization, while also looking for potential private investors to finance operations.
The China Embassy in the United Kingdom has urged ministers to negotiate with Jingye to “find an acceptable solution for all parties”.
In March, Jingye said that his SCUTHORPE site lost £ 700,000 per day, which, according to him, was “no longer financially sustainable”, and the company began a consultation on job cuts.
Discussions on the government with Jingye last week failed to produce a breakthrough. The government said the company had rejected an offer of 500 million pounds in public money to help operate the ovens and had demanded more than twice as much with few guarantees that it would keep the factory open.
Affairs Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he “had become clear” for the government that Jingye intended to close the Hauts Fourneaux, whatever the financial support offered, which prompted him to obtain control of the site of his owner.
