cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/32655252
The UK was “naive” to allow its sensitive steel industry to fall into the hands of a Chinese company, Britain’s business secretary said on Sunday (Apr 13) after the government took control of British Steel.
But Jonathan Reynolds said he did not suspect the Chinese state of trying to tank the plant in northern England, the country’s last factory able to make steel from scratch.
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant’s blast furnaces from turning off, after its Chinese owners Jingye said it was no longer financially viable to keep them burning.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to maintain operations but was losing around £700,000 a day.
“As a country we’ve got it wrong in the past,” business and trade secretary Reynolds told Sky News on Sunday, blaming previous Conservative leaders for allowing Chinese companies to run sensitive infrastructure. “It was far too naive about some of this,” he said.
[…]
As Reuters reports, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
Large industrial companies such as Jingye Group had direct links to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s government would understand why Jingye’s proposal was unacceptable to Britain, he added.
[…]
Perhaps he’ll be open to looking at all the stuff which has been sold off to the Americans now. I won’t hold my breath.
Tbh, the critical stuff has mostly been sold off to Chinese, Saudi Arabian & Indian companies. No doubt US firms own more than is desirable, but I think the interdependence of defence technologies & intelligence is the bigger issue with regard to the US.
The French State meantime owns quite a bit, but are allies with similar geopolitical needs, and for all that the relationship is often that of squabbling siblings, won’t wish matters to sour with such a near neighbour.
At this stage Richard Branson should put in a bid for it. I’ll give you two guesses what the company will be called 🤣.
“Beardy Dick’s Hot Metal Emporium” or “Not completely fucked yet Steel”?
Not what I was thinking but I do like those answers.
