The clock is ticking on the future of British Steel as a unique national capability, with officials attempting to keep the country’s last blast furnaces from slipping into a crippling shutdown.
A port on the nearby Humber estuary is key to retrieving urgently needed coal and iron pellets to keep the fires burning
UK official
Industrial furnaces melt raw materials at 1,600°C but if the temperature drops below a certain level the Scunthorpe plant’s fate could be sealed, as there is no guarantee the furnaces could be restarted. As the last remaining site to forge virgin steel in the UK, it was feared that the company was deliberately attempting to turn off the plant.
The UK government dramatically seized control of the private company in the first Saturday sitting of parliament since 1982. Prime Minister Keir Starmer pushed through emergency legislation to nationalise the Scunthorpe plant, in northern England, ultimately taking it from Chinese firm Jingye.
Britain reliant on Chinese imports?
Jingye’s bosses had been in negotiations for months with the government, seeking a multimillion pound deal to subsidise the plant. It had been losing £700,000 a day, mainly due to the very high energy costs involved in manufacturing the country's railway lines and other elements of national infrastructure.
Government officials have been despatched to a port on the nearby Humber estuary to obtain the coal and iron pellets urgently needed to keep the furnaces burning. A spokesperson for Mr Starmer said two shipments containing iron ore, pellets and coking coal had docked at the local port, with a third on its way.
"We are now confident in securing the supply of materials needed," the spokesperson told reporters. "Obviously we'll be working with management to identify further raw materials needed to keep a steady pipeline and to keep the furnaces burning."
The anxiety stems from the very real possibility that in a world of tariffs and threatened free trade, Britain will lose its sovereign capability to produce steel.
The product is vital to the UK economy as the metal is needed for rail tracks, construction industry rods, caterpillar tracks and some military equipment. Scunthorpe produces more than 80,000 tonnes of steel a year, so closure would have left Britain without its own steel production for the first time since the Industrial Revolution.
But that production comes at a high cost, totalling £230 million annually, Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds has said. After months of negotiations with Jingye, on Friday the UK government concluded that its Chinese bosses were not interested in money and had ceased to act in good faith. This created the need for Saturday's emergency legislation. While that was rapidly achieved, the fallout with China has deeper implications.
It has been alleged that the reluctance to keep the fires burning was an act of deliberate disruption to increase the UK's reliance on cheap Chinese steel. Gary Smith, general secretary of the GMB union, said workers were “legitimately concerned about industrial sabotage”. In interviews on Sunday, Mr Reynolds refused to rule it out but also suggested it could instead be “neglect”.
The timing is also diplomatically troubling for London as it seeks a thaw in relations with Beijing, potentially to open up greater trade. The UK government’s move is also likely to be an acceleration of an industrial reset for Britain, in the light of destabilised manufacturing lines that have been further threatened by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs.
More to come?
The new legislation put British Steel under the direct control of Mr Reynolds, allowing him to demand the purchase of raw materials. The Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill also allows him to order the company to keep the furnaces running, with failure to comply leading to their nationalisation.
Loss of the furnaces would have meant Britain was the only G7 country without the ability to make steel, and would have meant about 3,500 jobs lost. While many global furnaces have converted to electric power, Scunthorpe’s are ageing and inefficient and will have to close by 2050 to meet UK net zero pledges.
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
The Settlers
Director: Louis Theroux
Starring: Daniella Weiss, Ari Abramowitz
Rating: 5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
Ultra processed foods
- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns
- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;
- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces
- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,
- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.
WE%20NO%20LONGER%20PREFER%20MOUNTAINS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Inas%20Halabi%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENijmeh%20Hamdan%2C%20Kamal%20Kayouf%2C%20Sheikh%20Najib%20Alou%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
About Karol Nawrocki
• Supports military aid for Ukraine, unlike other eurosceptic leaders, but he will oppose its membership in western alliances.
• A nationalist, his campaign slogan was Poland First. "Let's help others, but let's take care of our own citizens first," he said on social media in April.
• Cultivates tough-guy image, posting videos of himself at shooting ranges and in boxing rings.
• Met Donald Trump at the White House and received his backing.
About Okadoc
Date started: Okadoc, 2018
Founder/CEO: Fodhil Benturquia
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Healthcare
Size: (employees/revenue) 40 staff; undisclosed revenues recording “double-digit” monthly growth
Funding stage: Series B fundraising round to conclude in February
Investors: Undisclosed
COMPANY%20PROFILE
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESmartCrowd%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2018%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounder%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESiddiq%20Farid%20and%20Musfique%20Ahmed%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDubai%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFinTech%20%2F%20PropTech%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInitial%20investment%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%24650%2C000%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ECurrent%20number%20of%20staff%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%2035%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeries%20A%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestors%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EVarious%20institutional%20investors%20and%20notable%20angel%20investors%20(500%20MENA%2C%20Shurooq%2C%20Mada%2C%20Seedstar%2C%20Tricap)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Honeymoonish
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The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
NO OTHER LAND
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Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
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World%20Food%20Day%20
%3Cp%3ECelebrated%20on%20October%2016%2C%20to%20coincide%20with%20the%20founding%20date%20of%20the%20United%20Nations%20Food%20and%20Agriculture%20Organisation%2C%20World%20Food%20Day%20aims%20to%20tackle%20issues%20such%20as%20hunger%2C%20food%20security%2C%20food%20waste%20and%20the%20environmental%20impact%20of%20food%20production.%20%0D%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
The%20specs
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Thursday Beat Sydney 2-0 in Sydney
Saturday v Western Sydney Wanderers in Sydney
Wednesday v Bayern Munich in Shanghai
July 22 v Chelsea in Beijing
July 29 v Benfica in London
July 30 v Sevilla in London
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
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Rating: 3.5/5
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
Traits of Chinese zodiac animals
Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent
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