British government takes historic control of British Steel

On April 12, 2025, the British government decided to take over British Steel, the largest government bailout since several banks were taken over by the government in 2008. The following is a detailed introduction to the incident:
Background of the incident: British Steel is headquartered in Scunthorpe, a traditional industrial town in the UK. Its predecessor can be traced back 150 years ago. It has an annual production capacity of about 4.5 million tons, directly employs nearly 3,000 people, and supports about 20,000 related jobs. At the end of 2019, Jingye Group, a private steel company in China, acquired 100% of the shares of British Steel for 53 million pounds and officially delivered it in March 2020. However, due to multiple factors such as the reconstruction of the global supply chain, the deterioration of the international trade environment, and the high energy and environmental protection costs, the Scunthorpe plant is still losing about 700,000 pounds a day and faces the risk of blast furnace closure.
Reasons for takeover:
Avoid becoming an outlier in the G7: Once the steelmaking furnace of British Steel's Scunthorpe plant is closed, the UK will become the only country in the G7 that cannot produce primary steel using iron ore, coke and other raw materials, which is unacceptable for the once industrial power.
Maintain national economic security: Steel is the basic material of industry and plays an irreplaceable role in many fields such as national defense and infrastructure construction. Losing primary steel production capacity will pose a major threat to the country's long-term economic security.
Guarantee employment and social stability: British Steel has directly and indirectly driven a large number of jobs. Closing the plant will have an impact on the local and even national employment situation and affect social stability.
Takeover process: The British government urgently recalled MPs who were on Easter recess and passed the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Bill. It took about six and a half hours from the proposal to the passage of the bill to the king's approval. According to the bill, the Secretary of State for Business is authorized to directly intervene in the operation of British Steel's Scunthorpe plant, including directing management, ordering raw materials, and ensuring the continuous operation of the blast furnace.
Subsequent impact: This takeover is not equivalent to nationalization, but the business secretary said nationalization is a possible option in the future. The government has allocated 2.5 billion pounds to support the steel industry to maintain the UK's steelmaking industry, which shows that the British government regards the steel industry as a strategic priority. However, although the government's intervention has solved the crisis of steel companies in the short term, in the long run, how to balance the relationship between market mechanisms and government regulation, and how to achieve sustainable development in the steel industry, are still important issues facing the British government.