The UK has appropriated its final working steelworks, following fears its former Chinese language house owners would shut it down.
Printed On 17 Jul 2026
Beijing has warned the UK that its nationalisation of British Metal has “severely undermined” Chinese language corporations’ confidence in investing within the UK.
The UK nationalised the loss-making firm on Thursday in what the federal government mentioned was a transfer taken to guard nationwide pursuits.
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British Metal is the one supply of main steelmaking within the UK. It helps roughly 2,700 jobs throughout its essential steelworks in Scunthorpe and throughout the broader provide chain.
The corporate’s former proprietor, Jingye – which is among the many 100 greatest corporations in China – purchased British Metal for 70 million kilos ($94m) in 2020. By 2025, Jingye mentioned it was dropping 700,000 kilos ($942,000) every single day.
British Metal’s nationalisation has been within the works for greater than a yr.
In March 2025, Jingye carried out a session that concluded that the British Metal furnaces weren’t financially sustainable. The next month, it emerged that Jingye had cancelled orders for a key materials used within the steelmaking course of, stoking fears that it was planning to close down the blast furnaces.
That month, the UK authorities seized operational management of British Metal from Jingye to cease that from taking place. The Chinese language firm retained possession, however misplaced operational management.
Thursday, although, noticed possession formally switch to the UK authorities, which says it is going to appoint an impartial valuer to “assess whether or not any compensation is payable” to Jingye.
The method has angered Beijing. The expropriation of British Metal “critically broken” Jingye’s authentic rights and pursuits and “severely undermined” Chinese language corporations’ confidence in investing within the UK, China’s Ministry of Commerce mentioned in a press release on Friday.
The UK, the ministry mentioned, has “forcibly” taken over the corporate and “disregarded” Jingye’s contributions to the British financial system and society.
The ministry urged the UK to fulfil obligations underneath the China-UK Funding Safety Settlement and mentioned it will help Chinese language corporations in defending their rights.
