Race against time to keep Scunthorpe steel furnaces alive as raw materials to be delivered today

The raw materials needed to keep the blast furnaces running at British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant will be delivered to the site today, the government has confirmed. Ministers have been racing against time to secure the coking coal and iron ore needed to keep the furnaces at the UK’s last virgin steel-producing plant operating. If they cool down too much, the molten iron solidifies and blocks the furnaces, making it extremely difficult and expensive to restart them. Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, will visit the port in nearby Immingham as the supplies from two ships are unloaded and transported to the…