Why this is a race against timepublished at 07:05 British Summer Time
An emergency law was passed on Saturday giving
the government control of British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant.
So the threat of closure is gone away – for now – but the clock
is still ticking.
Why? The key raw materials needed for steel production – coking
coal and iron ore – are running low.
Without these materials, the temperature of the furnaces
could drop too low, risking permanent damage and even total shutdown.
It’s a costly and complex process to restart a blast furnace, and could be impossible, so time is of the essence.
On Sunday, the business secretary refused to confirm on
whether the materials could be obtained in time.
Coking coal, which has to be imported, can take 45 days to arrive once it’s been ordered. Iron ore tends to arrive more quickly.
