raw material

The government says it has secured the raw materials needed to keep the British Steel plant at Scunthorpe going "for the coming months" into the summer.

Brazil is a producer of both metals and has large reserves of their raw materials – bauxite and iron ore.

Officials said the move was part of ongoing efforts to stabilise production and followed the confirmation of a stable supply of raw materials for the site.

But economists note that domestic manufacturing of motor vehicles and electronic products is heavily reliant on imported raw materials such as steel and aluminum and complex components such as semiconductors and computer chips.

An iPhone for example may contain chips that were designed in the US, manufactured in Taiwan, Japan or South Korea, using raw materials like rare earths which are mostly mined in China.