British Steel has said it will end a consultation on up to 2,700 redundancies, after the government took control of the firm earlier this month.
An emergency bill to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces became law after MPs were urgently recalled to the House of Commons.
It meant the steel plant in Scunthorpe continued to operate as the government decides on a long-term strategy, and steelmaking in the UK more broadly.
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The announcement that jobs are secure follows confirmation of a stable supply of raw materials and the appointment of new leadership at British Steel. The plant was due to run out of raw materials, requiring production to stop at Britain’s only virgin steel furnace.
Other steel works, such as in Port Talbot, Wales, produce steel from scrap metal using electric furnaces.
A total of 3,500 people work at the Scunthorpe site.
Efforts to stabilise British Steel’s blast furnace production have been underway after the emergency bill was passed on 12 April.
Chinese owner Jingye had cancelled its orders for raw materials.
It said the blast furnaces were “no longer financially sustainable” due to “highly challenging” market conditions, tariffs and costs associated with transitioning to lower-carbon production techniques.
Tariffs imposed by Donald Trump put a 25% tax on all steel imports to the US, pushing up costs even further and igniting calls for countries to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those like steel used for defence and infrastructure.
The Scunthorpe works are “vital for both the UK’s national security and manufacturing”, the government said when debating the emergency bill.
British Steel has been contacted by Sky News over how long the 2,700 jobs are safe for.
