Tata Steel announces plans to cut 2,800 jobs in a blow to Welsh town built on steelmaking
Indian firm Tata Steel says it will close both blast furnaces at its plant in Port Talbot in Wales, eliminating 2,800 jobs
LONDON — Indian firm Tata Steel announced Friday it will close both blast furnaces at its plant in Port Talbot, Wales, eliminating 2,800 jobs, as part of plans to make its unprofitable U.K. operation leaner and greener.
Tata plans to switch from coal-fired blast furnaces to an electric arc furnace, which emits less carbon — and needs fewer workers — using a half-billion pound ($634 million) investment from the British government.
The company said the switch would “reverse more than a decade of losses and transition from the legacy blast furnaces to a more sustainable, green steel business.”
“The course we are putting forward is difficult, but we believe it is the right one,” Tata Steel Chief Executive T.V. Narendran said.
The company said it expects about 2,800 jobs will be eliminated — 2,500 of them in the next 18 months, with a further 300 at longer-term risk. Both blast furnaces are due to be shut this year, with the new electric furnace installed by 2027.
The news is a major blow to Port Talbot, a town of about 35,000 people whose economy has been built on the steel industry since the early 1900s.
Unions have called for one blast furnace to remain open while the electric one is built, which would have meant fewer job cuts. They say Tata rejected their proposal.
The Unite union said it would “use everything in its armory” to fight job losses, including potential strikes.
At its height in the 1960s, the Port Talbot steelworks employed around 20,000 people, before cheaper offerings from China and other countries hit production. More than 300,000 people worked in Britain’s steel industry in 1971; by
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