Teleri Glyn-Jones
Political reporter, BBC Wales News
Reuters
Port Talbot steelworks closed both its traditional blast furnaces in September 2024
Work to bring “a cleaner, greener future” to a south Wales site, where 2,800 jobs were lost when traditional steelmaking ended, will begin later.
Construction will commence on a new electric arc furnace at Port Talbot’s Tata steelworks, which is expected to be up and running by 2027 and reduce the site’s carbon emissions by about 90%.
It comes after 2,800 jobs were lost when the site’s blast furnaces were shut in September 2024.
A union described the announcement as “bittersweet”, but the UK government insisted it was a “major win”.
Plaid Cymru accused Labour of trying to “rewrite history and win back trust in communities they so readily abandoned”, while the Conservatives said it was an “important milestone” in a plan that originated with the previous Tory government.
UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds will join the Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens and representatives from Tata Steel to officially start the work on the new, greener steel-making project.
Meanwhile, the UK government’s steel council will meet on Monday to finalise its steel strategy, chaired by UK Industry Minister Sarah Jones and “backed by up to £2.5bn in investment”.
Community Union said the start of the works in Port Talbot was a “bittersweet day” after the “devastating closure of the blast furnaces” at the site.
The union’s assistant general secretary Alasdair McDiarmid said: “Today should represent the first step towards rebuilding our steel industry and creating new high-quality jobs for our steel communities.
“Going forward we must see further investment to develop and grow the business, both here in Port Talbot and across all the crucial downstream sites.”
He added the union would continue to hold talks with government “on their plans to safeguard and co-invest in our steel industry”.
The UK government said the milestone was a “major win” made possible by a £500m grant they provided as part of the “improved deal for Port Talbot’s transition”.
Reynolds described it as “great news for Welsh steelmaking”, which would give “certainty to local communities and thousands of local jobs for years to come”.
Chairman of Tata Group Natarajan Chandrasekaran said it was a “ground-breaking” day which “marks not just the beginning of a new electric arc furnace, but a new era for sustainable manufacturing in Britain”.
“At Port Talbot, we are building the foundations of a cleaner, greener future, supporting jobs, driving innovation, and demonstrating our commitment to responsible industry leadership,” he added.
Jo Stevens said the construction of the new furnace “realises the promise we made to the community” and meant “Port Talbot has a bright future”.
Stevens said the UK government was “aiming to ensure that there is as little as possible hit on the UK steel industry” from US tariffs.
Reports in June said the US government was threatening to leave Port Talbot out of a deal for tariff-free access to the US, because Tata had been importing steel since the closure of the blast furnaces last year.
That means steel could breach US rules that require all steel to be “melted and poured” in the country it is imported from.
“That’s one of the things that we’re talking to the US administration about,” Stevens told BBC Radio Wales Breakfast.
She said Reynolds “is leading the discussions, working hard to secure protections for UK steel”.
Welsh Conservative Senedd leader Darren Millar said it was an “important milestone” that will save “thousands of jobs” and “a key part of the plan announced by the previous UK Conservative government”.
Liz Saville-Roberts, Plaid Cymru’s Westminster leader, said: “This is a desperate attempt by Labour to rewrite history and win back trust in communities they so readily abandoned.
“While ministers pat themselves on the back, local people remember all too well how this government stood by and allowed the last blast furnace to close, costing 2,800 skilled workers their jobs and ripping the heart out of the town’s economy.”
First Minister Eluned Morgan said: “Seeing spades in the ground today provides a tangible sign of Tata’s intention to continue producing steel in the area, an industry which has provided quality jobs to local people for generations.”
Liberal Democrat MP David Chadwick added that the “people of Port Talbot won’t easily forget, or forgive, the [UK] government’s failure to step in and protect local jobs, as they did in Scunthorpe.”
Additional reporting by David Deans