Jingye seeks compensation from UK over British Steel takeover

Jingye Steel said it would seek “prompt, adequate and effective” compensation from the British government for its British Steel investment after ministers took control of the company on national security grounds. Jingye said the government still had not given it a substantive response, after going public on the dispute last month and calling the intervention a forced takeover that could end in full expropriation.

The UK-China bilateral investment treaty covers investments including shares and claims to money, and sets out compensation if assets are expropriated. Jingye said in June that it had begun consultations under that treaty, which can lead to international arbitration after six months if the parties do not settle. The legal fight is over whether Britain’s seizure of operational control, without a formal transfer of ownership, crosses the line from emergency regulation into compensable taking.

Britain’s intervention used the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act 2025, passed on 12 April 2025, which gave ministers power to direct steel companies or take control of assets in England if they were at risk of closure. The move was meant to prevent the sudden shutdown of British Steel’s Scunthorpe blast furnaces, protect supply chains and safeguard thousands of jobs. In March, the National Audit Office put the Department for Business and Trade’s spending at £377 million in the first nine months after the intervention to keep Scunthorpe operating, while parliamentary briefings said the site contains the UK’s last remaining operational blast furnaces and supplies 80% of Network Rail’s steel needs under a £500 million contract.

In May, the government said it would bring forward legislation giving it the option of bringing British Steel into public ownership. Jingye bought the business in 2020 and says it later poured money into upgrades, jobs and a green transition.