In the crucible How No 10 faced the test of keeping British Steel open

By next weekend, a cargo ship carrying 55,000 tonnes of coking coal from Australia will have docked at Immingham. In other circumstances, its arrival would be unremarkable. But the moment the Navios Alegria reaches the Lincolnshire port will be the culmination of the government's high-wire act to keep the UK's last steel furnaces running.

- Eleni Courea

MPs were recalled from their Easter recess last Saturday to pass emergency legislation giving the government control over British Steel, which operates Britain's last two blast furnaces capable of producing steel from scratch using coke and iron ore.

Long-running talks between the government and Jingye Group, the Chinese conglomerate that owns the Scunthorpe plant, broke down 10 days ago after executives declined an offer of £500m to keep the furnaces running. Ministers became convinced Jingye bosses were determined to shut it down come what may.

Senior figures in Downing Street and Whitehall believe the company's decisions were motivated by a desire in Beijing to make the UK a dumping ground for Chinese steel exports - particularly in light of Donald Trump's tariffs.

"It became clear that when they saw the writing was on the wall they tried to shut down our steelmaking," one senior official told colleagues. Another senior government source told the Guardian: "They decided to shut it down because China needs to dump its steel somewhere."

Jingye has argued the plant is no longer financially sustainable and is running a loss of £700,000 a day.