Tata Steel’s furnace closure in UK may cut 2,800 jobs

LONDON: More than 2,800 jobs will be axed as Tata Steel plans to close its blast furnaces at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales in the UK.

Of the total job cuts, 2,500 will be in the next 18 months, said Indian conglomerate Tata. A further 300 jobs are to go in three years.

Statutory consultation on the cuts will begin, Tata Steel said but did not specify when.

Voluntary redundancies will be sought and more than 130 million pounds will be committed to a support package for affected employees.

It comes as Tata Steel announced it was to press ahead with plans to close blast furnaces at the Port Talbot plant in South Wales.

The first blast furnace will be closing around mid-2024 and the remaining heavy end assets will wind down during the second half of the year, Tata Steel said on Friday.

The steel giant in September said that it had secured 500 million pounds of taxpayer cash to support the site’s transition to cheaper, greener steel production to cut emissions and stem financial losses. Job cuts had been expected as part of the deal though 5,000 UK staff are due to remain within the wider UK operations following the agreement with the government.

The redundancies, to be completed by March next year, will see three-quarters of the 4,000 staff on site put out of work. The Port Talbot workforce currently accounts for 12 per cent of the coastal town’s entire population and many had expressed concerns for their families’ futures when it emerged that big job losses were expected.