Rescue plan for steelworks site

MORE than a dozen firms are now understood to have offered to help British Steel secure raw materials for its Scunthorpe works since the Government took control of the business.

- CHRISTOPHER MCKEON

Ministers took over the Scunthorpe steelworks under emergency legislation passed on Saturday, in an effort to stop Britain’s last primary steelmaking facility from closing irrevocably.

British Steel is facing a race against time to secure enough raw materials to keep its two blast furnaces going, and is looking at emergency measures including working with other businesses in the sector.

If the blast furnaces run out of raw materials, they can never be turned back on. Preventing that from happening was the primary reason for the Government recalling Parliament on Saturday to pass emergency legislation to keep the site open.