'Naive' to trust Chinese firm with British Steel, UK minister says
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The UK was "naive" to allow its sensitive steel industry to fall into the hands of a Chinese company, Britain's business secretary said on Sunday (Apr 13) after the government took control of British Steel.
But Jonathan Reynolds said he did not suspect the Chinese state of trying to tank the plant in northern England, the country's last factory able to make steel from scratch.
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off, after its Chinese owners Jingye said it was no longer financially viable to keep them burning.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to maintain operations but was losing around £700,000 a day.
"As a country we've got it wrong in the past," business and trade secretary Reynolds told Sky News on Sunday, blaming previous Conservative leaders for allowing Chinese companies to run sensitive infrastructure. "It was far too naive about some of this," he said.
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As Reuters reports, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
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.
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System shared this topic on
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The UK was "naive" to allow its sensitive steel industry to fall into the hands of a Chinese company, Britain's business secretary said on Sunday (Apr 13) after the government took control of British Steel.
But Jonathan Reynolds said he did not suspect the Chinese state of trying to tank the plant in northern England, the country's last factory able to make steel from scratch.
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off, after its Chinese owners Jingye said it was no longer financially viable to keep them burning.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to maintain operations but was losing around £700,000 a day.
"As a country we've got it wrong in the past," business and trade secretary Reynolds told Sky News on Sunday, blaming previous Conservative leaders for allowing Chinese companies to run sensitive infrastructure. "It was far too naive about some of this," he said.
[...]
As Reuters reports, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
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.
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Ya fuckin' think there, champ? You reckon? Maybe? Maybe a but naive was it? You think?
Bellend
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Ya fuckin' think there, champ? You reckon? Maybe? Maybe a but naive was it? You think?
Bellend
To be fair, it didn't happen under his watch. He's basically taking the opportunity to put the blame on the Tories for allowing it.
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The UK was "naive" to allow its sensitive steel industry to fall into the hands of a Chinese company, Britain's business secretary said on Sunday (Apr 13) after the government took control of British Steel.
But Jonathan Reynolds said he did not suspect the Chinese state of trying to tank the plant in northern England, the country's last factory able to make steel from scratch.
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off, after its Chinese owners Jingye said it was no longer financially viable to keep them burning.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to maintain operations but was losing around £700,000 a day.
"As a country we've got it wrong in the past," business and trade secretary Reynolds told Sky News on Sunday, blaming previous Conservative leaders for allowing Chinese companies to run sensitive infrastructure. "It was far too naive about some of this," he said.
[...]
As Reuters reports, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
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.
[...]
If the free market didn't want a Chinese firm to buy it why did it sell?
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If the free market didn't want a Chinese firm to buy it why did it sell?
I don't think you understand the meaning of free market or didn't fully read the article, because their problem is the free market wanted to sell it and a Chinese firm bought it. They no longer want to sell vital infrastructure to Chinese firms and thus no longer want that part of the market to be free.
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I don't think you understand the meaning of free market or didn't fully read the article, because their problem is the free market wanted to sell it and a Chinese firm bought it. They no longer want to sell vital infrastructure to Chinese firms and thus no longer want that part of the market to be free.
because their problem is the free market wanted to sell it and a Chinese firm bought it.
Glad you got it. Still I made a criticism of it. In particular to how many see markets as perfect and even a form of justice.
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because their problem is the free market wanted to sell it and a Chinese firm bought it.
Glad you got it. Still I made a criticism of it. In particular to how many see markets as perfect and even a form of justice.
Didn't get it was meant as sarcasm
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I don't think you understand the meaning of free market or didn't fully read the article, because their problem is the free market wanted to sell it and a Chinese firm bought it. They no longer want to sell vital infrastructure to Chinese firms and thus no longer want that part of the market to be free.
It's sarcasm
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The UK was "naive" to allow its sensitive steel industry to fall into the hands of a Chinese company, Britain's business secretary said on Sunday (Apr 13) after the government took control of British Steel.
But Jonathan Reynolds said he did not suspect the Chinese state of trying to tank the plant in northern England, the country's last factory able to make steel from scratch.
The government rushed urgent legislation through parliament on Saturday to stop the Scunthorpe plant's blast furnaces from turning off, after its Chinese owners Jingye said it was no longer financially viable to keep them burning.
Jingye bought British Steel in 2020 and says it has invested more than £1.2 billion (US$1.5 billion) to maintain operations but was losing around £700,000 a day.
"As a country we've got it wrong in the past," business and trade secretary Reynolds told Sky News on Sunday, blaming previous Conservative leaders for allowing Chinese companies to run sensitive infrastructure. "It was far too naive about some of this," he said.
[...]
As Reuters reports, Jingye wanted to import steel from China for further processing in Britain, against a backdrop of global overcapacity in much of the steel industry and challenges from U.S. tariffs.
But the closure of blast furnaces at the British Steel plant in Scunthorpe would have left Britain as the only major economy unable to produce so-called virgin steel from iron ore, coke and other inputs.
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.
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the country's last factory able to make steel from scratch
Daft cunts. If you neither have any redundancy, nor the bloody sense to guard your single point of failure, you deserve the pain.
The people probably don't though. That's always the tragedy with these things.
