The United Kingdom has taken the dramatic step of nationalizing British Steel after the company’s Chinese ownership group moved to close the plant’s blast furnaces, the government announced Thursday.
The Department for Business and Trade said the nationalization would protect thousands of jobs and serve the country’s national interest by guaranteeing a homegrown supply of steel for large-scale construction projects and the defense sector.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle issued a statement declaring: “British Steel now belongs to the British people, and our focus is on the future: stabilizing the business, backing the communities that rely on it and building a sustainable, competitive and decarbonized steel sector for the years ahead.”
An independent assessment will now be conducted to decide whether the plant’s previous owner, China’s Jingye Group, is entitled to any compensation following the takeover.
The government had already assumed operational control of British Steel the previous year after Jingye announced it was weighing the closure of the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe facility in northern England. Those furnaces hold the distinction of being the only remaining ones in the United Kingdom capable of producing “virgin steel” directly from raw materials.
Steel production at Scunthorpe stretches back more than 130 years, rooted in steelmaking advances that emerged during Britain’s Industrial Revolution. The facility currently provides employment for approximately 2,700 workers.
Jingye acquired British Steel in 2020 and reports that it has poured more than 1.2 billion pounds — roughly $1.6 billion — into keeping the plant operational despite what it describes as “ongoing production instability.”
