Government to pay steel industry £600m to go green - report

The government is poised to announce £600m in grants to help the UK’s energy-intensive steel industry go green, it was reported on Monday.

According to the BBC, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is set to confirm grants for British Steel and Tata Steel UK later this week. Each are understood to be in line to receive around £300m to help switch away from coal-fired blast furnaces as well as helping with energy costs.

Blast furnaces are essential to steel making, as they are used to smelt iron from ore-bearing rock. But they use a treated form of coal called coking coal and produce huge quantities of carbon dioxide.

The government has yet to confirm the reports, although the BBC said the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy had confirmed it was working with the steel industry to ensure a “sustainable and competitive future”.

Both British Steel, which is owned by China’s Jingye Group, and Indian-owned Tata, employs thousands of workers in the UK, with two furnaces each in Lincolnshire and in Port Talbot, south Wales. Neither have commented on the reports.

The Guardian reported that any government support would be conditional on the companies also committing to invest in the plants themselves.

Tata Group chair Natarajan Chandrasekaran said last year that Port Talbot needed £3bn if it was to remain operational, including £1.5bn from the government.