Description: British Secretary of State for Trade and Investment, Johnatan Reynolds, has announced that the UK government has secured critical fuel supply from the US and Australia to keep British Steel furnaces running. The approximate operational time the fuel would ensure was projected for a couple of weeks which effectively postpones implementing emergency strategies such as putting the virgin steel company under concession and scouting for potential investors. British Steel was reacquired from its Chinese owners, the Jingye Group, with the passing of an emergency bill on 12 Apr, when the UK government cited national security concerns over the mismanagement of the crucial industrial asset.
Impact: The British Steel case emphasizes China’s operational outreach in projecting and weaponizing crucial industrial assets in order to infiltrate the UK economy and force the country to be largely dependent on imports of key raw materials. Last week’s emergency bill passing signals neglect in the field of risk management by UK’s government in respect to key industrial assets such as British Steel. Constant pressure from the global trade war highlights the country’s unpreparedness to protect and ensure operational continuity in crucial economic sectors which would contribute towards escalated risk on the British industrial market. China would continuously pressure countries dependent on imports towards bilateral partnerships in order to prevent long term effects from the global trade war on its domestic economy and position itself in an advantageous position to dominate the global markets.