Image source, Getty Images

Steelworkers have drilled the final hole in the blast furnace wall, which allows liquid iron to flow out.

The process began this afternoon and could last for some hours.

The furnace’s ability to produce liquid iron ends today and with it a century of ironmaking in Port Talbot.

When the engineers monitoring the iron decide that they’ve taken all that they can, the hole will be plugged and the furnace will officially go out of service.

So, as our live coverage of this momentous day comes to an end, we will leave the final words to Tata steelworker Cassius Walker-Hunt.

"Today marks the last shift to blow down the furnaces - the dragon's final breath.

"Let's remember the legacy it leaves behind."

The last iron to be produced at Port Talbot has been tapped, Tata Steel has confirmed.

Plumes of white steam could be seen being vented from the furnace for the last time just after 17:00, signalling the end of traditional steel making in Wales.

Tata confirmed the last iron has been "tapped" - the process of removing molten iron from the blast furnace.

Image source, Getty Images

Despite Tata Steel's Port Talbot plant being the UK's single biggest emitter of planet-warming carbon dioxide, Greenpeace UK has branded the decision to shut them down "tragic".

"We should be absolutely clear that those blast furnaces closed because of a lack of strategy from Tata and from the government," says Paul Morozzo, senior climate campaigner at Greenpeace.

"They weren't closed because of carbon emissions."

He says the charity wanted a long term decarbonisation strategy, which "wouldn't have the kind of job losses that are happening at Port Talbot".

These images show the final shift for workers as Port Talbot's Blast Furnace 4 creates its final steel.

After more than 70 years, the site's blast furnaces will be gone - along with 2,800 jobs - and replaced, eventually, with electric arc furnaces.

Image source, Jonathan James

Image source, Jonathan James

Image source, Jonathan James

Image source, Jonathan James

Actor Michael Sheen, who grew up in Port Tabot, previously described the town's "complicated relationship" with the steelworks.

"It was frightening, it was comforting, it put food on families' tables but it extracted a high price at times," he said.

"Anyone that has grown up in Port Talbot has grown up with the steelworks.

"The light that never goes out."

However, that light will now go dark, as Tata and Port Talbot enter a new era of greener steelmaking.

Steven Surtees has been working at Tata since he was 16.

Now, 45 years later, he is taking redundancy.

“It's absolutely heartbreaking," he says.

"For me and a lot of people in there we feel this is vandalism on an industrial scale. There is no trust among the workers and the company."

A plume of steam began emitting from Blast Furnace 4's chimney shortly after 17:00.

It is the last time this sight will ever be seen.

Workers say the plume will continue for the next few hours as the furnace shuts down for the last time - bringing an end to seven decades of traditional steelmaking.

As the steam dissipates, so will the livelihoods of about 2,800 of Tata Steel’s 8,000 staff across the UK as the firm and the wider industry adapt to greener ways of making steel.

“The next time the media come to Port Talbot I hope it’s for a film festival not steel,” 17-year-old Iona Walker-Hunt tells us.

“A lot of people think Port Talbot is just the steelworks, but it’s not. There’s so much more."

Her dad Nigel is an ex-steelworker who started his own business after being made redundant in 2015.

“Obviously it’s sad for everyone losing their job but I also think it’s an opportunity to start something new and start a better name for the town."

Gareth Bryer
BBC News in Port Talbot

It’s been eight months since Shaun Spencer left Tata but the bond is such that he still says “we” when referring to the company.

The electrical engineer says the argument that shutting the blast furnaces will be good for the environment isn’t quite that simple, because “you’re only shifting the carbon footprint to a different location in the world”.

“And that location is going to benefit massively - their economies will benefit massively while ours will suffer in the pursuit of green targets,” he says.

He agrees with critics who say the UK and Welsh governments have failed communities like Port Talbot in transitioning to a greener economy.

“You may get better air quality but what happens then to the local economy?” he asks, pointing to the impact the closure of the pits has had on the Welsh valleys.

"There's no community anymore because of it. There are people trying their best, but I truly believe that without local economies, society suffers."

If you're just catching up on today's events, here is BBC Wales business correspondent Huw Thomas to give you a short, sharp explanation of why the blast furnaces at Port Talbot are closing.

Read more here on why the blast furnace will stop production.

Steffan Messenger
BBC Wales environment correspondent

Image source, Reuters

As well as cost pressures, climate change targets are behind the overhaul of Tata Steel in Port Talbot.

The plan, as well as being the largest steelworks in the UK, is also the UK's biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide, which is warming up the planet.

The single act of switching off the two blast furnacescould cut Wales' carbon emissions by as much as a fifth.

But critics say the local community is paying an unfair price with thousands of jobs lost, and a failure by government to deliver a “just transition” to a greener future.

Tata Steel has consistently argued that its blast furnace operations were losing £1m a day.

The India-owned company has also said its commitment to build a £1.25bn electric arc furnace will bring greener steelmaking to south Wales.

Tata's Port Talbot plant is also the UK's biggest single emitter of planet-warming carbon dioxide and closing the blast furnaces could cut Wales' carbon emissions by as much as a fifth.

Wales and the UK are among many countries to have set legally binding net zero targets to stop adding more carbon dioxide to the atmosphere by 2050.

The Welsh government is committed to what it has called a "just transition... to a net zero economy" and said good planning could mean new opportunities and minimising job losses.

While steel is not leaving Port Talbot, the blast furnaces shutting down for good signifies a massive shift in the industry that has come to define this town for decades.

Here's a look back at how the site has changed in the previous 70 years.

The UK government will "keep an eye" on Tata Steel to ensure it meets its promises on jobs, a minister has said.

Nia Griffith, MP for Llanelli and a minister in the Wales office, said the government would ensure Tata is “held to account”.

“They are absolutely going to have to deliver,” she told PA news agency outside the Port Talbot steelworks.

She added that the company would not be given promised government funding if they failed to produce jobs.

Paul Pigott
BBC News in Port Talbot

Image source, Getty Images

Not everyone in Port Talbot is unhappy to see the steelworks close.

One woman, who did not want her name to be used, says she is “glad” to see them gone because of “all the dust we’ve been living with”.

Another woman, Charlotte Rodgerson, says she won’t miss the dust either.

“It’s terrible,” she says. “When I moved from Aberdare my kids never went to the doctors.”

However she says that since moving to Port Talbot they are “in and out of hospital” because of issues with their chests.

“It’s just awful and the smell is disgusting,” she says.

“They you hear this massive bang and you look out your window and all you can see is black in the sky.”

“If is closed that’s brilliant. No more dust," she said, adding that although people could lose work "it's better for our health".

Image source, PA Media

Port Talbot is not the only major closure today.

After 142 years of reliance on the fossil fuel, the country's last remaining coal power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar, in Nottinghamshire, is shutting down after running since 1967.

In doing so, the UK - the birthplace of coal power - becomes the first major economy to give it up.

Both closures mark a major milestone in the country's ambitions to reduce its carbon emissions and its contribution to climate change.

Image source, Roo Lewiw

"Some of it is quite frightening, to be honest with you."

That was the reaction from a union official almost exactly a year ago as steelworkers absorbed the changes heading their way.

One year on, the reality of Port Talbot blast furnace closures is here and the town is having to face up to its next chapter.

"It breaks my heart," Peter Sharp, 67, told BBC Wales last week.

"Port Talbot won’t feel or look the same. Maybe one day in the future we’ll be glad to see it move on but not right now," he said.

Angharad Young, 46, a primary school teacher, is pianist for the town's only male voice choir, Cymric Choir.

"I know it's not always been the cleanest of places but I think it's improved over the years," she said.

"We're proud of it. The children are proud to be able to say someone in their family works there."

The UK government has acknowledged that today’s closure is an “extremely difficult time” for the workers in Port Talbot, as well as the wider community.

Jo Stevens, the Secretary of State for Wales, said the Labour government, which has been in office since its election victory in July, will “support all those affected”.

“It is why within weeks of taking office we secured a better deal which secures the future of steelmaking in Port Talbot,” she said.

“This government is determined to back workers and businesses in our Welsh steel industry whatever happens,” she said.

Andrew RT Davies, the Welsh Conservative leader in the Senedd, called today “a very sad day for Wales”, calling the loss of traditional steelmaking “yet another blow to our cultural and industrial heritage”.

“We have to ask ourselves if our industrial strategy is really working in our favour, and level the playing field in favour of our communities,” he said.

Plaid Cymru called today “a day of shame for the UK government”.

Hywel Griffith
Wales correspondent, BBC News, in Port Talbot

The rain clouds shrouding the steelworks this afternoon set the tone for a difficult day in Port Talbot.

Everyone here has known this moment was coming - some have been able to plan but others are still uncertain over how the changes will impact their job.

What is clear is that over a century of traditional steelmaking in Port Talbot is ending and little has been put in place over the years to prepare.

South Wales is an area all too familiar with the pains of moving on from heavy industry, as can be seen by the pockets of deprivation that remain in former coalmining communities.

The need to cut carbon emissions has been pressing for a decade and yet work on a so-called “just transition” and what it would mean for workers has only started in recent years.

Many are hoping that the promise of employment in a new, greener economy will come to pass but the truth is those jobs are needed here and now.

Janet Weaver, 59, says the steelworks are all the people of Port Talbot have “ever known”.

Weaver, who has a son in his thirties who has been made redundant by the closure, says she has had "five generations of family in the steelworks", describing the plant as symbolic of the town.

“When you come into Port Talbot in the evenings it lights up the skyline from the motorway,” she says, adding that while pollution has been an issue, the plant has “provided food on the table”.

She adds that she is concerned the area will become a “ghost town” after the closure and feels "there’s not a person in Port Talbot who’s not feeling this pain at the moment".

She adds that her son’s specific qualifications means he will have to move to find the same job.

“People have to leave this town,” she says.