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India’s Tata Steel has confirmed it will close the last two blast furnaces at the UK’s largest steelworks in Wales as part of a sweeping restructuring that will result in the loss of up to 2,800 jobs.
The decision is a devastating blow to the 4,000-strong workforce at Tata’s main site at Port Talbot in south Wales, which is expected to bear the brunt of the job losses. Tata employs about 8,000 people across the UK.
Tata said the furnaces would close by the end of this year as part of a move to greener forms of steelmaking.
It will invest £750mn towards the restructuring and building one electric arc furnace instead, backed by a £500mn grant from the UK government.
About 2,500 jobs would be lost within the next 18 months, Tata said on Friday.
Tata Steel’s chief executive, T V Narendran said the “course we are putting forward is difficult, but we believe it is the right one”.
“Having invested almost £5bn in the UK business since 2007, we must transform at pace to build a sustainable business in the UK for the long-term,” he added.
The decision sparked a furious reaction from unions and opposition MPs.
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community steel union, called on Tata to reconsider, describing the decision as “unacceptable” and “devastating for Port Talbot and the wider steel industry”.
Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP for Aberavon, urged Tata to “pull back from the brink” and reconsider its “utterly devastating” decision.
“Do we really want to be a country, given the dangerous and turbulent world in which we live, that isn’t able to produce its own steel?” he said.
“There isn’t a single household in my Aberavon constituency that isn’t connected to the steelworks in some way, and the impact would be utterly devastating,” Kinnock added.