British Steel reveals eightfold increase in losses
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British Steel has announced an eightfold increase in pre-tax losses during 2022 as concerns mount about the future of the Chinese-owned company.
The steelmaker, owned by China’s Jingye, made losses of £408mn on turnover of £1.7bn in the 12 months to December 2022, according to newly filed accounts at Companies House. A year earlier, it lost £49.5mn on turnover of £1.5bn.
The UK government has been in long-running talks with the company to help fund its transition from conventional steelmaking to greener, less labour-intensive electric arc furnaces. Ministers are aiming for a similar deal to one they struck with Tata Steel last week, which secured £500mn of state aid for the UK’s largest steelworks.
But with no agreement in sight, one person close to the situation said the government expected Jingye to announce the closure of its two blast furnaces in Scunthorpe this month, with potentially thousands of job losses.
British Steel said discussions were “ongoing” with the government about potential support for its decarbonisation programme and the future operations of the business. “While we have invested more than £1bn to maintain our ageing blast furnaces, this is not financially or environmentally sustainable for the longer term,” it said.