UK Govt Races Against Time To Keep Steel Furnaces Running

London: Britain's government on Monday raced to secure raw materials to keep the country's last steelmaking blast furnaces running, as Beijing warned the UK against politicising the takeover of Chinese-owned British Steel.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government swooped in on Saturday to prevent the closure of British Steel's main plant in northern Scunthorpe after its Chinese owners Jingye halted orders of raw materials such as coking coal and iron ore.

The Labour-run government must now secure the materials to keep the two blast furnaces at the plant -- the last in the UK which makes steel from scratch -- running.

Government minister James Murray said officials were at the site on Monday.

"Their role is to make sure we do everything we can to ... get those raw materials to the blast furnaces in time," Murray told Times Radio.

Other firms including Tata and Rainham Steel have also offered help securing supplies, the minister added.

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs from the GMB trade union said she was "wholly reassured" that coking coal bound for the plant will be "paid for and unloaded over the next couple of days" at a nearby shipping terminal.

However, Murray and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds were unable to guarantee they would be able to keep the twin furnaces going.

Blast furnaces are difficult to restart once switched off.

Failure to secure enough supplies to keep them running could seriously damage the plant -- and risk making Britain the only G7 country without virgin steelmaking capacity needed for everything from railways to bridges.

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