Jingye deal completes saving 3,300 jobs at British Steel

British Steel

The Chinese firm Jingye Steel has completed its planned takeover of British Steel for a reported £50 million.

The deal is expected to safeguard 3,300 jobs out of 5,000 posts in Scunthorpe and Teesside as well as at TSP Engineering in Cumbria.

The sale will unlock investment of £1.2 billion over ten years to modernise the main site in Scunthorpe and fund improvements in energy efficiency and environmental performance, Jingye Steel said.

The deal includes assets in the Netherlands but not the Hayange plant in France that Jingye still hopes to acquire.

“We are delighted to have reached this agreement and look forward to completing the initial transaction over the coming days so we can begin a new chapter in British steel-making,” Li Huiming, the chief executive of Jingye Steel, said.