On Monday, UK authorities said they had opened talks with steelmakers, including British Steel, owned by China's Jingye Group, and India's Tata Steel, to help ensure the "long-term future of the industry."
A government spokesman said in comments to the media that London is working on challenges in the steel sector to achieve a sustainable and competitive future for the steel industry in the islands.
“We understand that businesses are feeling the impact of high global energy prices, especially steel producers, therefore we have announced an energy bill relief scheme to bring down costs,” a spokesperson said.
British Steel has reportedly agreed to maintain current operations and jobs while negotiations are underway.
Earlier Monday, Sky News reported that Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg had written to Jingye Group, expressing readiness to negotiate the Chinese company's request for financial bailout to avoid losing thousands of jobs.
Jingye, which bought British Steel out of bankruptcy in 2020, told the government that its two blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe steel plant are unlikely to be viable without government help.
Let us recall that the Indian group of companies Tata, which owns the steel business Tata Steel, has announced its readiness to leave Europe and transfer its facilities to other countries if a way out of the current situation in the energy market in the EU is not found and Great Britain.
As we already reported, Tata Steel sees no reason to wait for the UK government's decision on the subsidy package, as the latter does not seem to be of interest to London officials; instead, the company is looking for options to exit the country.
