China is no longer welcome in Britain’s steel sector after the government had to pass emergency legislation on Saturday to ensure control of Chinese-owned British Steel, British Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds said on Sunday.
Reynolds said the refusal of China’s Jingye Group (敬業集團) to accept a roughly 500 million pound (US$654 million) government aid package last week to stop irrevocable damage to blast furnaces left the government with no alternative to intervening directly.
Against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from US tariffs, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, Reynolds said in an interview with Sky News.
Photo: Dominic Lipinski, Reuters
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe — which need to be constantly fuelled and are losing 700,000 pounds a day — would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
Previous British governments had been “naive” to allow Chinese companies to be involved in the steel sector, Reynolds said.
Large industrial companies such as Jingye Group had direct links to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s government would understand why Jingye’s proposal was unacceptable to Britain, he added.
“You’ve got to be clear about what is the sort of sector where we can promote, cooperate; and ones, frankly, where we can’t. I wouldn’t personally bring a Chinese company into our steel sector. I think steel is a very sensitive area,” he said.
Jingye bought British Steel from the government in 2020 after the company became insolvent.
Since coming to office last year, the Labour government has stepped up engagement with China after tensions under previous Conservative governments over human rights, Hong Kong and latterly restrictions on investment over security concerns.
Reynolds said he viewed other sectors such as car making, life sciences and agricultural products as less sensitive areas for Chinese investment.
British Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves visited Beijing in January and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) visited London in February to revive talks that were paused for over six years.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS