Threat to jobs as British Steel opts to replace Scunthorpe blast furnaces

British Steel has announced a £1.25bn plan to replace two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, a move that would further reshape the UK steel industry and could eventually threaten the jobs of up to 2,000 steelworkers.

- Jasper Jolly

The company, owned by China's Jingye, informed workers yesterday that it proposed to replace the blast furnaces with greener electric arc models, rejecting the possibility of capturing the carbon from the furnaces, in a blow to the nascent British carbon capture industry.

Under the proposals, the two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, in North Lincolnshire, would be replaced by an electric arc furnace at Scunthorpe and another at a site in Teesside. That would mark the return of steelmaking to Redcar, where the blast furnace was demolished last year after its closure in 2015.

The investment would be "subject to appropriate support from the UK government". British Steel is understood to be asking for £500m in financial support, to match that given to its only UK rival, Tata Steel, which runs two blast furnaces at Port Talbot in south Wales.

Electric arc furnaces offer the ability to recycle scrap steel using clean electricity, unlike blast furnaces, which rely on coal, creating unavoidable carbon emissions.