British Steel was forced to close one of its two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe last year after using the wrong kind of coal, in the latest sign of the crisis enveloping the Chinese-owned group’s UK operations.
The debacle triggered initial fears among some government officials that British Steel might be trying to sabotage its own lossmaking plant, but ministers have been reassured that the shutdown was down to a management blunder.
The disclosure came as it emerged that British Steel has abandoned plans to restore steelmaking to Teesside, as part of a government-backed restructuring of the company’s operations to move to greener forms of production.