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Scunthorpe steelworks: why can’t you just turn a blast furnace off and what is a salamander tap?

British Steel is scrambling to find enough raw materials to keep steel production going at Scunthorpe, after the government took control of the plant on Saturday.If the materials do not arrive in time then the end of production at at least one of the steelworks’ two blast furnaces could come within days.The rush to secure materials such as coking coal and iron ore has put the spotlight on the workings of the UK’s last two blast furnaces.Here’s what you need to know.Why is there a race to find materials?Scunthorpe’s “four queens” – four blast furnaces named Bess, Anne, Victoria and Mary – have towered over the town for decades. However, only two – Bess and Anne – are still in operation, and even those are faced with closure unless they can find raw materials to keep going.British Steel’s Chinese owners, Jingye, had planned to turn off another as soon as on Monday – using a process called a salamander tap – ahead of stopping all operations within weeks, with 2,700 jobs at risk.However, a…