The Chinese owner of British Steel wanted close to £1bn from the government to keep its Scunthorpe plant open and move to greener methods of steel making, according to people familiar with the situation.
The size of the taxpayer support requested — half of the total project cost — underlines the scale of the challenge in keeping the company’s two existing blast furnaces open while building new, less carbon-intensive electric arc furnaces.
Jingye last week rejected a government offer of £500mn and launched a consultation that could see its two blast furnaces close as early as June, putting up to 2,700 jobs at risk. The business operates the last two furnaces in the UK after Indian-owned Tata Steel closed its final one in Port Talbot, south Wales, last September.