British Steel supplied rival Tata at height of UK-US tariff threats

British Steel has made the unusual move of selling slabs of metal to its rival Tata Steel, as the latter sought ways around Donald Trump's proposed tariff rules.

- Jasper Jolly

The Scunthorpe steelworks in north Lincolnshire - now controlled by the UK government - provided slabs made in its blast furnaces to Tata's operations in south Wales in recent months, according to steel industry sources.

Indian-owned Tata was seeking ways to avoid threatened US tariffs on steel not sourced from the UK while its Welsh operations were reliant on buying slabs from elsewhere. However, the proposed rules were later dropped after the UK and US failed to reach agreement.

The UK government took control of British Steel in April amid fears that its Chinese owner, Jingye Steel, was preparing to walk away and leave irreparable damage.

Since taking control, the government has directed British Steel to increase output and hire more workers. Jingye claimed the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe - the last in Britain able to make steel from iron ore - had been losing £700,000 a day.