“The most important thing is we’ve got control of the site, we can make the decisions about what happens, and that means that those blast furnaces will stay on,” he said. The Times newspaper said British Steel workers had seen off a “delegation of Chinese executives” trying to enter critical parts of the works.Police said officers attended the scene “following a suspected breach of the peace,” but no arrests were made. “They also refused a condition to keep the blast furnaces maintained.”Saturday’s legislation allowed for criminal sanctions and gave the government powers to take over assets if executives fail to comply with instructions to keep blast furnaces open. However, fierce competition from cheaper Asian steel has heaped pressure on Europe’s beleaguered industry in recent years. British Steel has its roots as far back as the Industrial Revolution but took shape in 1967 when the Labour government nationalised the industry, which at the time employed nearly 270,000 people.

Source: The Times April 13, 2025 01:02 UTC