The UK government indicated last weekend that it would take over British Steel from the Chinese company Jingye Group.
According to recent reports by Agence France-Presse, the UK government stated last weekend that it would take over British Steel from Jingye Group, a Chinese company. Business and Trade Minister of the UK, Jonathan Reynolds, said that allowing the steel industry to fall into China's hands was "naive." In response, the Chinese Embassy in the UK stated on the 16th that the remarks made by some individual UK politicians regarding the UK government taking over British Steel were "ridiculous" and "reflected their arrogance, ignorance, and twisted mentality."
According to information from the WeChat official account of the Chinese Embassy in the UK, the embassy's spokesperson responded on the 16th regarding this issue. There are several basic facts about the British Steel issue: Jingye Group is a private Chinese enterprise that invests in the UK market based on market principles and independently operates its business; it is well known that British Steel had been losing money for years before being acquired by Jingye in 2020, and entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2019; after Jingye took over, it injected substantial funds into British Steel, enabling the company to continue operations. "If not for the intervention of this Chinese company, workers at British Steel might have faced unemployment risks long ago."
The spokesperson also mentioned that according to the UK government's "net-zero emissions" strategy, steel companies using iron ore must achieve "net-zero emissions" by 2035. Therefore, including British Steel, all UK steel enterprises are negotiating with the government to find decarbonization transformation paths. The Wilton Steelworks in Port Talbot plans to shut down its blast furnaces and build electric arc furnaces in July 2024. This decision is part of normal transformation investments and negotiations with the UK government can be understood.
The spokesperson emphasized that Chinese enterprises operate legally and stably in the UK, making positive contributions to the local economy. According to incomplete statistics, Chinese enterprises contribute more than 115 billion pounds to the UK economy, creating nearly 60,000 jobs. "Under the current situation where the US wields tariff sticks against various countries including the UK, promoting unilateralism and protectionist trade bullying, instead of criticizing the US, those UK politicians constantly slander and defame the Chinese government and Chinese enterprises. What exactly do they intend to do?"
The spokesperson stressed that any actions or words that politicize commercial issues and engage in malicious hype will damage the confidence of Chinese enterprises in investing in the UK and harm Sino-UK economic and trade cooperation. "We hope the UK government continues to negotiate with Jingye and actively seeks solutions acceptable to all parties. We will continue to monitor the development of the situation."
According to previous reports by Agence France-Presse, the aforementioned British Steel plant is located in Scunthorpe, northern England, employing thousands of employees, and is the last factory in the UK that produces raw steel, providing steel for industries such as construction and railways. In 2020, Jingye Group purchased British Steel and invested more than 1.2 billion pounds (approximately 1.58 billion US dollars) to maintain operations, but still incurred daily losses of approximately 700,000 pounds (about 920,000 US dollars); at the end of March, Jingye Group announced the closure of the plant. However, the UK Parliament urgently passed a bill on the 12th to prevent the plant's closure, followed by an announcement that the government would take over the company and may even nationalize it.
Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7494122479586230799/
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