I’ve not seen this covered in METAR.
The factory, steel mill is located in the UK.
But, that’s not helping the UK maintain its autonomy WRT steel.
{ The [UK] government said the owner of the British Steel complex in Scunthorpe, the Chinese company Jingye, was prepared to cancel orders for the raw materials needed to keep its blast furnaces burning, a step that would leave Britain unable to make virgin steel for the first time since the Industrial Revolution
Parliament voted to take emergency control of the plant – and even reportedly used the police to deny Jingye staff entry to the site. }
To paraphrase the old meme: “May we live in interesting times”.
China has repeatedly cornered various markets
((REEs, solar panels, and more, soon to include cheap EVs, maybe robots))
and drive other (nonChinese) producers out of business, and thereby creating a monopoly.
China is accused of using state support and stolen IP and tech to “unfairly” produce goods more cheaply than can foreign producers.
Buying and closing a competitor has a long tradition in capitalism.
China plays this game, too.
The UK, by seizing this steel mill, prevents China from tightening its stranglehold on steel production, outside of China.
{ But the government’s hasty decision to take back control of the Scunthorpe plant, owned by Jingye since 2020, offers a snapshot of how countries like Britain are navigating an economically uncertain world: on the one hand, remaining committed to the globalization that US President Donald Trump is challenging; on the other, protecting industries that are judged too strategically important to leave to market forces. }
ralph