coke

The government said work was under way on Monday to obtain the coking coal and iron ore that power the plant's two furnaces - materials it previously said owners Jingye had been selling off.

Today, Scunthorpe has an air of a town returning to a war footing; a community fighting to keep the coke ovens burning, with 2,700 jobs and its identity etched into steel at stake.

The blast furnaces generate the extreme heat needed to produce virgin steel and are fuelled by coking coal and iron pellets - but supplies of those raw materials at the Scunthorpe plant are running low.

On Wednesday, sources said the government had offered to buy the coking coal that is essential to keep the blast furnaces going.

The plant's Chinese owner, Jingye, has cancelled two cargo shipments of coking coal for the site's two blast furnaces and it has not yet paid for iron pellets that are scheduled to arrive next week.