Adam Goldsmith
Live reporter

Image source, PA Media

Hard hat firmly in place, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner surveyed the government’s latest charge this afternoon, as she told reporters that her team is “confident in the future of British Steel”.

After the government took control of the Scunthorpe plant on the weekend, a race began to ensure that vital materials - including iron ore and coking coal - were readily available.

The urgency came from the 2,700 jobs at risk should the furnaces cool - and end up being shut down for good.

Reassurance arrived a little later on, as union figures - and then government ministers - stressed that the government was "confident" that British Steel could remain in operation.

Shipments of the materials may now be on the way, but long-term questions remain around the future for the country's steel industry.

MPs from Wales and Scotland are asking why similar protectionary measures weren't granted in their regions - while Rayner says she "would like to see" private investment in British Steel in the future.

Meanwhile, Beijing warned the UK against "politicising" negotiations around the plant, which is still owned by Chinese firm Jingye.

That brings our live coverage to an end for today, but there's more across the BBC on this story:

• Our news article has all the latest on the hopes for the site's future
• Plus, there's more on why the furnaces were so close to shutting for good

As we've been reporting, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been visiting British Steel in Scunthorpe.

Speaking from the steel plant site, Rayner said the government would not rule out private investment and it remains confident about the future of the business.

Here are some pictures from her visit:

Image source, PA Media

Image source, Getty Images

A 5.2% drop in global steel demand is being forecast this year by S&P Global Commodity Insights, bringing it down to the lowest level since 2017.

This is being driven by "weaker Chinese consumption, encouraging high levels of Chinese steel exports that are weighing on prices globally", says Evan Millard, a metals and mining research analyst at S&P.

New US tariffs are also adding uncertainty to an already fragile global market, Millard says, adding that UK steelmakers face additional pressure from "high energy costs and the need to import iron ore and coking coal, unlike competitors with domestic mine supply".

Paolo Frediani, a senior analyst at Fastmarkets, says the problem for British Steel in particular is that it uses blast furnaces, which, unlike electric arc furnaces, cannot be quickly shut down and then restarted.

"At the moment there is a lot of talk about preserving the UK's capacity to produce steel from iron ore. But the reality is that from an economic and environmental point of view it does not make a lot of sense to make the products that British Steel makes with blast furnaces," he says.

"There are other companies, even in the UK, that compete in the same segments of the steel market and use electric arc furnaces. Eventually, a decision should be made on whether the UK has a strategic necessity of preserving blast furnace production or not."

As for the future of the plant, Rayner reiterates that it is important for the UK to continue to make steel in this country.

The deputy PM suggests that her team has taken "nothing off the table", and "would like to see" private investment in the plant going forwards.

She's then pressed on the UK's relationship with China, after suggestions that the Chinese firm Jingye - which owns the plant - had tried to "sabotage" British Steel by failing to gather vital materials to keep the furnaces burning.

Rayner emphasises that there is "no evidence" of this and suggests that the government was forced to act after Jingye didn't take up the business secretary's offer to support the Scunthorpe steelworks.

Image source, UK Pool

The deputy prime minister says they have the raw materials needed for the blast furnaces to continue and those have been paid for.

"We're confident that the furnaces will continue to fire," she says.

Rayner's then asked if the raw materials will arrive today - she doesn't say, but repeats that they have the vital supplies and "everything is in place".

The new management and the unions are "very happy with the government's response so far", Rayner adds.

Image source, PA Media

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has been visiting British Steel workers in Scunthorpe today.

Addressing reporters, Rayner says she's "confident" that the UK government has the raw materials necessary to keep the furnaces going.

Asked if she should have done something sooner, Rayner says the new management and unions told her they're "very happy" with what the government has done.

It comes after the UK government recalled Parliament on Saturday, when an emergency law rushed through and gave the government control of the Lincolnshire site to prevent Jingye - the Chinese firm that owns British Steel - from closing the furnaces against ministers' wishes.

Trump's trade war might help explain the different outcome at Port Talbotpublished at 14:53 British Summer Time 14 April

14:53 BST 14 April

Felicity Evans
BBC Wales money editor

Image source, Reuters

Labour says the deal to support the transition to greener steel at Port Talbot had already been done by the time they won the general election in July 2024.

Despite their criticisms of that deal whilst in opposition, in the three months before the plant's last blast furnace was shut down in September 2024, the changes they negotiated were around improved conditions for affected workers, rather than any fundamental changes to Tata's plan for the future which was already under way.

When the blast furnaces were closing in Port Talbot, the UK continued to have the ability to make steel from scratch at the plant in Scunthorpe – although even then there were concerns about its future.

The fact that Scunthorpe is now the home of the only operational blast furnaces in the UK may well have focused minds at Westminster, especially since ministers seem to have lost trust in Chinese owners Jingye.

Add to that President Trump’s recent imposition of 25% tariffs on steel imports to the US, and the uncertainty of where a trade war between the US and China might end up, and the questions about how best to secure the UK’s place in the global steel industry have only intensified.

Image source, Reuters

As we reported in our earlier post, Plaid Cymru has criticised the government's action to take control of British Steel, saying it failed to do the same in Wales with Port Talbot.

The national secretary for GMB union says today that comparing Port Talbot and Scunthorpe isn't "entirely fair", mainly because most of the developments at the Welsh plant happened under the previous Conservative government.

"Frankly, when it came to the industrial strategy, they were asleep at the wheel," Andy Prendergast says.

The Labour government has backed plans for a new £1.25bn electric arc furnace at Port Talbot, with the switch-on due in 2027.

"This (Scunthorpe) was our last blast furnace, it was a different situation, and we have a different government at the wheel," Prendergast says, adding that Labour was "willing to take the bull by the horns" to keep the Scunthorpe plant going.

Image source, PA Media

Conservatives

While several Tory MPs voted in favour of the bill, shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith says that “the government could have seen this coming earlier".

He called the deal a "botched nationalisation" but argued the Conservatives supported the deal because "it's the least worst option on the table".

Reform

Leader Nigel Farage today criticises the “somewhat ridiculous situation”, in which he suggests Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds is “in charge of what’s left of the British steel industry”.

As a result, he calls for the plant to be nationalised, before it is sold to a private business “later down the road”.

Liberal Democrats

Daisy Cooper, the party's deputy leader, has welcomed the government’s action, but is also urging it to use the new legislation “judiciously” - as part of a plan to get the steel industry "back on track".

Greens

In a statement, Green Party MP Ellie Chowns argues that the government should go further and nationalise British Steel.

The MP suggests this will provide “the opportunity to help drive the green industrial revolution”, and support the Scunthorpe steelworks to transition “from blast furnaces to electric arcs”.

Jennifer Meierhans
Senior business reporter

Another common question is why the blast furnace cannot be easily restarted. Former steel plant worker Bill Penn says that to turn the furnace off, you need to almost work through the steps we just discussed backwards.

Start by draining the iron and slag from the tap hole and stopping the hot air from igniting those chemical reactions, Penn explains.

Around 300 tonnes of hot metal can come out, and "it can stay like that for about a week before it starts chilling and solidifying", he says.

Another hurdle is turning the furnace back on, as the pool of metal can expand and crack the furnace's shell.

"To stop that happening you need to empty that sump pool using a salamander [chilled metal] tap process by drilling a hole to remove any remaining hot metal," Penn adds.

Jennifer Meierhans
Senior business reporter

Image source, PA Media

We're getting lots of questions about how a blast furnace works.

I asked Bill Penn who worked at the Scunthorpe plant for 20 years and now consults on the global steel industry.

The furnace is like a "fat steel chimney", he says, which gets to temperatures as high as 2,100C and turns raw materials like iron ore and coking coal into liquid iron.

Step by step, here's how the process unfolds:

• Iron ore and coking coal go into the furnace from the top, and at room temperature
• Copper fans blow hot air at about 2,100 C
• The heat means coke reacts with oxygen to produce carbon monoxide, which turns iron oxide in the iron ore into metallic iron - this part of the process is called "reduction" and leaves behind molten iron
• The furnace is tapped regularly and liquid iron and slag comes out through a tap hole near the bottom of the furnace
• Iron then goes to the steel plant to make steel - and the slag is a by-product used in other parts of the construction industry

Image source, Getty Images

After the emergency vote on British Steel at the weekend, questions are now being asked about the government's decision not to intervene in Scotland to save Grangemouth - the UK's oldest oil refinery.

Scotland's only oil refinery has been marked for closure by its owner Petroineos. About 400 of the 2,000 jobs that are based at the industrial complex will be lost.

At the emergency vote on Saturday, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn challenged Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds over similarities to the closure of the Scottish refinery on the Firth of Forth.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney reupped those feelings at a news conference this morning, saying: "If British Steel is to be nationalised to protect it, then so too should Grangemouth."

But, Reynolds told the Commons at the weekend that the threat to the Scunthorpe plant was a "unique situation".

He also said that the UK government had pledged £200m to secure Grangemouth's long-term future.

Downing Street has said it is now “confident” that raw materials will reach the British Steel site in Scunthorpe to keep the blast furnaces running.

“We are now confident in securing the supply of materials needed," the prime minister’s official spokesperson says, adding that the government is working with management at the Scunthorpe site to secure a “steady supply” of materials.

The iron ore pellets and coking coal contained in two shipments at Immingham docks will reach the steelworks “over the coming days”, he says.

A third shipment of raw materials is currently off the coast of Africa and making its way to the UK, the spokesperson adds.

He suggests that order had already begun prior to the government taking control of the site, but says “there were contractual issues that have now been sorted".

Image source, Getty Images

The UK government has been accused of double standards after 2,800 jobs were lost when steel production ended at Tata Steel's Port Talbot plant in September.

In a debate discussing a proposed British Steel law to save a Scunthorpe plant, Plaid Cymru and Liberal Democrat MPs criticised the government's plans, saying it had failed to do the same for Port Talbot - once the UK's largest virgin steel producer.

Secretary of State for Wales Jo Stevens, however, says that Labour negotiated the "best voluntary redundancy package ever offered by Tata", and also saved 5,000 jobs.

The difference, she tells BBC Radio Wales, is that in Scunthorpe the government was dealing with a company "that was not negotiating in good faith".

A shift manager at the Talbot Port steelworks, however, disagrees.

Stuart Philips tells BBC Radio Wales that he thought the "possibility of nationalising the steelworks" was something that would also be considered for the Welsh plant before it was shut down.

In a later post, we'll also set out why the government says the crisis in Scunthorpe is "not comparable" to the closure of the Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland.

We're keen to hear what impact the uncertainty around the British Steel plant has had on you.

Umang Oberai, whose company UN Global Trading exports steel around the world, says "prompt action is needed".

He tells us: "We were looking to expand in the UK but now I might have to establish my business abroad, maybe in Dubai where it is supported."

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We're continuing to get some fresh reaction from Beijing, with its embassy in the UK recently saying that it is "closely following" developments involving British Steel and the Chinese firm that owns it, Jingye.

When asked about the UK government's recent move to take control of Scunthorpe, a spokesperson for the embassy says: "We have urged the British side to act in accordance with the principles of fairness, impartiality and non-discrimination."

"It is an objective fact that British steel companies have generally encountered difficulties in recent years," the spokesperson adds.

The statement goes on to say that the embassy hopes the British government will negotiate with Jingye to "find a solution acceptable to all parties".

We've been hearing from British Steel employees turning up for work this morning.

While some have warmly welcomed the government's intervention, others are remaining cautious until a secure ownership deal is confirmed.

You can watch our interviews above.

David McKenna
Live reporter

John, who didn’t give his surname, describes the mood at the steelworks today as “more positive”.

“It’s right to look after the place – it keeps jobs and it keeps steel,” he says.

Union bosses have claimed that the blast furnaces at the site were now “secure” following the government’s emergency measures.

Speaking on the Today programme earlier, the general secretary of the Community Union, Roy Rickhuss, said the two blast furnaces will continue to run today, despite concerns over raw material supply.

Back over at Scunthorpe, John tells BBC Look North that the media was “getting a bit overcome” about the supply of raw materials.

“I think we’ve got more,” he says.

“If we slow a furnace down we will be alright.”

British Steel has just announced that it has appointed a new interim chief executive, Allan Bell, and interim chief commercial officer, Lisa Coulson.

The company says both are long-term employees, and that the appointments have been signed-off by Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds.

Bell says: “Our sole focus is ensuring a secure and sustainable future for British Steel’s production in Scunthorpe.

“Our immediate priorities are securing the raw materials we need to continue blast furnace operations, ensuring we have the dedicated personnel to run those furnaces, and maintaining the highest levels of health and safety for our workforce.

“We look forward to working in partnership with our colleagues in government, the trade unions and the workforce here in Scunthorpe."

A company source also tells the BBC: "These were the serious people that kept the place running."

Why is it important for the UK to be able to make virgin steel?published at 10:41 British Summer Time 14 April

10:41 BST 14 April

Joe Pike
Political & Investigations Correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Virgin steel is the strongest steel. It is made using the extreme heat of a blast furnace and is used in railways and construction projects.

The blast furnace at Port Talbot in Wales was turned off last September leaving British Steel’s Scunthorpe site as the last remaining producer of virgin steel in the UK.

If Scunthorpe’s two remaining blast furnaces were shut down, the UK would become the only member of the G7 group of leading economies without the ability to make virgin steel.

The UK government argues keeping the site operating is vital both for national security and economic security.

International instability has strengthened the argument that in an uncertain world the UK must retain the ability to be self-sufficient and maintain critical industries like making virgin steel.