London. The UK government has nationalized British Steel to protect the nation’s steelmaking capacity after the company’s Chinese owners moved to shut the plant’s blast furnaces.

The Department for Business and Trade announced the move on Thursday, saying it would save thousands of jobs and protect the UK’s national interest by ensuring a supply of domestically produced steel for major construction projects and the defense industry.

“British Steel now belongs to the British people, and our focus is on the future: stabilizing the business, backing the communities that rely on it and building a sustainable, competitive and decarbonized steel sector for the years ahead,” Business Secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement.

An independent evaluation will be carried out to determine whether any compensation will be paid to the firm’s former owner, China’s Jingye Group.

The UK government took operational control of British Steel last year after Jingye said that it was considering closing the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe plant in northern England. The blast furnaces are the last in the U.K. that make “virgin steel” from raw materials.

British Steel and its forebears have been making steel at Scunthorpe for more than 130 years, building on the UK’s development of improved steelmaking technology during the Industrial Revolution. The plant currently employs about 2,700 people.

Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than 1.2 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) to keep the plant running in the face of “ongoing production instability.”
 

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