China’s Jingye Group is up in arms as it has emerged that failed steelmaker British Steel’s French factory, Hayange Mill in northern France, producing rails for train lines, has been put up for sale separately from the rest of the company.
Jingye Group is in the process of taking over British Steel, with the the Chinese conglomerate paying £50mn (US$ 6,580 approx) and saving 4,000 jobs.
The deal is said to have included all of the British Steel’s assets, however, it has now emerged that the plant’s management, put the French factory up for sale, “as a back up plan”.
British Steel is currently being run by the UK Insolvency Service, and is the sole shareholder of British Steel France, which runs the Hayange plant. The Hayange plant is not part of the insolvency process.