Yahoo Finance Tata Steel pulls announcement on Port Talbot job losses
Tata Steel has pulled an announcement that had been expected to detail steep job cuts at its Port Talbot steelworks, in a dramatic last-minute reprieve that has left workers in the dark over the plant’s future.
Workers had been braced for confirmation of the closures of the two blast furnaces after a board meeting on Wednesday. However, Tata communicated after the board meeting that it would not be releasing a statement on its plans.
Unions have been left in the dark over the reasoning and whether Tata is likely to make an announcement or not in the coming days or weeks.
Workers are hoping that the company may be considering options put forward by the unions rather than closing the blast furnaces. However, any permanent reprieve would come as a major surprise, as Tata executives in Port Talbot had got as far as preparing initial plans for the closure, and unions had been given detailed briefings on how it would unfold.
Unions had been braced for as many as 3,000 job losses at Britain’s biggest steelworks and associated facilities by March – a bitter blow for a town that grew up around the steelworks. About 4,000 people are employed at Port Talbot.
The UK’s four blast furnaces are split between Tata’s site in Port Talbot and British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant, which is owned by the Chinese steel company Jingye. Both companies are under pressure to shift production away from methods that produce carbon dioxide. Port Talbot’s coal-powered two blast furnaces alone account for about 1.8% of UK emissions, contributing to the climate crisis.
Steel production is expected to continue on both sites but the companies are likely to install electric arc furnaces, a technology that uses electricity to melt scrap steel, removing the need for the blast furnaces that dominate the landscapes of both towns and that require thousands of employees to support them.
The UK government is planning to give Tata £500m in subsidies to help it upgrade but that will not cover the cost of installing a plant to make zero-emissions iron ore, which would preserve many more jobs. Tata is expected to inject about £725m to help the move to greener production methods.
The scale of the possible job cuts first emerged last month, and bosses at Tata – which employs 8,000 people across the UK – met union representatives in London to discuss the timeframe soon after.
Thousands of jobs are also thought to be at risk at Scunthorpe. British Steel is understood to be meeting trade unions next week to discuss its plan to decarbonise, which could put as many as 2,000 jobs at risk.
Tata declined to comment directly on the plans for Port Talbot. A spokesperson said: “We hope to start formal consultation with our employee representatives shortly. In these discussions we will share more details about our proposals to transition to a decarbonised future for Tata Steel UK.
“We believe our £1.25bn proposal to transition to green steelmaking will secure the business for the longer term, bolster UK steel security and help develop a green ecosystem in the region.
“We are committed to meaningful information and consultation process with our trade union partners and will carefully consider any proposals put forward.”
