LONDON, April 12 (Reuters) - Britain moved to take control of British Steel and keep its blast furnaces open on Saturday, as a minister told an emergency parliamentary session that a full nationalisation of the UK’s last maker of virgin steel was becoming increasingly likely.
The government recalled lawmakers, who had been on Easter recess, in order to pass a law enabling it to direct the company’s board and workforce, ensure they get paid, and order the raw materials to keep the blast furnace running.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said that he was taking action to avert the imminent closure of the blast furnaces, which are operating at a loss of 700,000 pounds ($915,600) a day.
In FY 2022-23, shipbuilding for the Royal Navy Type 26 and 31 used £45m of EU steel, and £2.85m of British steel. As for the Dreadnaught submarines, the majority of the steel is French, then Belgian, with less than 5% British steel being used.
That would be an immense increase in production capacity that I don’t see being feasible, especially as UK coal production is now at 0 and the government is against restarting it.