British Steel is recruiting 180 workers as it readies to ramp up production

The company is advertising for a variety of professional, skilled, and non-skilled roles, with the majority of the jobs (165) in Scunthorpe, and 17 others in Teesside and Skinningrove.

Jobs range from engineering and environment to chemistry and cleaning, and from legal and labouring to safety and stores.

British Steel said it had secured the raw materials to maintain a two-blast furnace operation and will significantly increase iron and steel production in the coming months. Interim chief executive officer, Allan Bell, said: “With the backing of the UK Government, we are focused on cementing British Steel as one of the world’s leading manufacturers of steel.

“To help achieve this, and meet customer demand, we will be upping production across all our sites and recruiting more than 180 people to help drive us forward.

“These are exciting opportunities across our business, offering rewarding careers which will play important roles in building stronger futures for our business and the UK economy.”

In April, following the collapse of negotiations with Chinese owners Jingye, the government passed emergency legislation to prevent the closure of its blast furnaces.

The last plant in the UK to make virgin steel, the Scunthorpe steelworks employ 2,700 people.

Earlier this month Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said £94 million of taxpayers’ money had been made available to the company which was “considerably less than if we had given a large amount of money to Jingye or if we’d had to deal with the complete loss of the entire British Steel site and business”.

A recruitment open day is being held on Saturday May 17 at British Steel’s Scunthorpe Conference Centre on Brigg Road between 10am and 4pm.