{"id":2051267,"date":"2026-07-19T10:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2051267"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T07:59:07","slug":"chinese-firm-seeks-compensation-over-british-steel-nationalisation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2051267","title":{"rendered":"Chinese firm seeks compensation over British Steel nationalisation"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/fa42\/live\/7ad3f5d0-835b-11f1-926f-c90d1bcfbc84.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"PAPA Media<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The former owner of British Steel has said it will pursue the British government for compensation after the loss-making firm was nationalised.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The UK took control of the Scunthorpe steelworks a year ago after China’s Jingye Group said it planned to close the site because it was not financially viable, and fully nationalised the plant on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement on Sunday, Jingye said it will seek “full compensation through legal means to the very end” over the UK’s move.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A government spokesperson said draft compensation regulations due to be released in the autumn will set out a compensation process through which an independent assessor “would determine what, if any, is payable”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Jingye bought the Lincolnshire steel plant in 2020, but in March last year the firm launched a consultation on its closure saying the plant was losing \u00a3700,000 a day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The government took control of British Steel operations in April 2025, but until this week it remained under Jingye’s ownership which limited the government’s ability to shape the firm’s future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday the UK government said it was taking the firm into public hands in order to safeguard a “vital national capability”, giving the government the power to decide the plant’s future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The decision to nationalise British Steel has threatened to strain the relationship between London and Beijing just as Andy Burnham prepares to enter Downing Street as prime minister on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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China hit out at the nationalisation of British Steel on Friday, saying it “firmly opposes and is strongly dissatisfied with the British government’s decision”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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China’s commerce ministry said the move “seriously infringed” upon Jingye’s rights and interests, and “severely undermined the confidence of Chinese companies investing in the UK”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The statement added that Beijing would support Chinese firms to protect their rights, but did not detail what that might involve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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A UK government spokesperson said on Friday that commercial negotiations with the Chinese steelmaker had failed to reach an agreement “that represented value to the taxpayer”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We highly value our relationship with China\u202fand remain open to Chinese investment, and we will continue to work together to deliver a successful trading relationship that provides the best opportunities for British businesses,” they added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The steelworks employs about 2,700 people and supports other industries in North Lincolnshire, but has faced significant uncertainty over the last few years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In March, the National Audit Office released a report that found it was costing the government about \u00a31.3m a day to keep the plant running.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But Business Secretary Peter Kyle has said letting the operation close was not an option, and the government will continue to cover the running costs “for the immediate future”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“If that business disappears, we will lose the ability for primary steel production in our country, we will become entirely dependent on global supply,” he said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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British Steel was last under state ownership in 1988 when it was privatised by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cwyj4ppqn41o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/fa42\/live\/7ad3f5d0-835b-11f1-926f-c90d1bcfbc84.jpg”] PA Media The former owner of British Steel has said it will pursue the British government for compensation after the loss-making firm was nationalised. The UK took control of the Scunthorpe steelworks a year ago after China’s Jingye Group said it planned to close the site because it was not financially viable, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-2051267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2051267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2051267\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2051267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2051267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2051267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}