Scunthorpe

Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, the GMB Union's national officer, said the ending of the process was "fantastic news for steel workers and the people of Scunthorpe".

Coking coal and iron ore from the US will be unloaded at Immingham docks and transported to the Scunthorpe site after a scramble for supplies.

Scunthorpe's furnaces produce molten iron by splitting rocks containing iron ore in a chemical reaction that requires intense heat.

In March, Jingye said its Scunthorpe site was losing £700,000 a day, which it said was "no longer financially sustainable", and the company began a consultation on job cuts.

The fate of the Scunthorpe steel works has shone a fresh spotlight on Chinese investment in the UK economy with critics raising questions over potential security risks.