British Steel will keep the blast furnaces at its Scunthorpe site in north Lincolnshire running until the new year, a company spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights Nov. 13.
“As part of our commitment to securing a sustainable future for British Steel in Scunthorpe, we recently purchased raw materials that will see our operations continue to run into the new year and are working to restore production levels from our blast furnaces,” the spokesperson said. “At the same time, we remain in active discussions with Government, working together to ensure British Steel continues to play a vital role in meeting the UK’s infrastructure needs.”
The only remaining UK blast furnace steel plant in operation, it is still in talks with the government about a timeline to transition its electric arc furnace production, the spokesperson said.
Tata Steel UK, once the largest UK steelmaker, permanently ceased production on the last of its four blast furnaces at Port Talbot in Wales on Sept. 30, marking the end of more than 100 years of blast furnace steelmaking at the site.
British Steel pledged a GBP1.25 billion ($1.55 billion) decarbonization plan under which it proposes to install two EAFs — one at its headquarters in Scunthorpe and the other at its manufacturing site in Teesside.
The new furnaces at Scunthorpe are slated to become operational by late 2025, replacing the 3 million mt/year blast furnaces responsible for the vast majority of the company’s CO2 emissions. That timelime has been put into question after a media report that the project would not get the required power grid connections until 2032.
At the end of October the company started a trial using technology to capture carbon emissions from the Scunthorpe plant, installing a mobile carbon capture pilot plant developed by the University of Sheffield at the sites central power station to extract carbon from the station’s boiler flue.
Platts, part of Commodity Insights, assessed Steel Hot Rolled Coil UK at GBP520/mt DDP West Midlands, up by £5/mt week on week.
Platts assessed UK HRC at GBP520/mt basis DDP West Midlands Nov. 7, up GBP5/mt week over week.
