According to the BBC, the government is threatening a "grim" September in which up to 6,000 jobs in the steel and oil refining sectors might be lost.

There will be a total of 2,800 job losses in Port Talbot in Wales and up to 3,000 job losses at British Steel in Scunthorpe. The Grangemouth oil refinery in Scotland will lay off an additional 400 workers.

Sources claim that unions' expectations that funding from a new Labour government would help prevent job losses have been mostly disappointed.

£2.5 billion fund was pledged in Labour's plan to revive the UK steel sector.

However, the current administration is following in the footsteps of its predecessor by stating that public funds may only be used to finance the construction of new, environmentally friendly steel manufacturing facilities, not to cover significant ongoing losses at carbon-intensive operations.

The owners of Port Talbot, Tata, an Indian company, and Scunthorpe, Jingye, a Chinese company, both maintain that the factories are losing £1 million per day.

The last blast furnace at Port Talbot will ultimately need to be replaced, and the government is in negotiations to complete a subsidy to Tata of £500 million towards the £1.25 billion cost of establishing an electric arc furnace.

Electric arc furnaces are mostly used to melt and reuse scrap steel, whereas blast furnaces utilise coke to create "virgin" steel, however, the process releases carbon dioxide.

Not all grades of steel produced in blast furnaces, including some used in rail and construction, can be replicated using this procedure.

(Sources: bbc.co.uk)