Thousands of workers could be laid off before Christmas amid concerns that British Steel is preparing to bring forward plans to close its blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, according to a trade union.
The furnaces could be closed before Christmas resulting in 2,500 job losses which could devastate the local community in North Lincolnshire, the GMB union said. However, the Chinese-owned company insisted that no decision has yet been made.
British Steel and its owner, Jingye, are already in discussions with the UK government over a deal for £600m in taxpayer support to aid a move to less-polluting technology.
The GMB trade union urged British Steel and the UK government to engage with employees immediately amid concerns about the early closure of the furnaces.
British Steel has previously said it would build an electric arc furnace (EAF) as part of its decarbonisation plans, replacing the carbon-intensive blast furnaces at the Scunthorpe site. The move will further reshape the UK steel industry amid uncertainty over the future of the vast Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales.
Under the proposals, the two blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would be replaced by an electric arc furnace at Scunthorpe and another at a site in Teesside, North Yorkshire. That would mark the return of steelmaking to Redcar, where the blast furnace was demolished last year after its closure in 2015.
However, an EAF would require far fewer staff, meaning significant layoffs could occur. Until now, no firm detail has been given on timings. The company had previously proposed to keep its current operations up and running until the transition had been made to electric arc steelmaking.
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, GMB national officer, said: “Early closure of the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe would be devastating for the community and workforce.
“Unions have been assured throughout the process that the blast furnace operations would continue throughout the construction of an electric arc furnace. There has been no consultation over an early closure.”
British Steel said: “Our imports of raw material are continuing but have reduced in light of ongoing production issues. We’re working to restore production levels from our ageing blast furnaces. We’re discussing our decarbonisation plans with the government and no final decision has been made.”
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Electric arc furnaces offer the ability to recycle scrap steel using clean electricity, unlike blast furnaces, which rely on coal, creating unavoidable carbon emissions.
In the past, unions have estimated that about 2,000 fewer people could eventually be required to operate British Steel’s electric arc furnaces at Scunthorpe, although the company has not yet told workers how many jobs could be affected.
