Steffan Messenger
BBC Wales Environment Correspondent

Image source, Getty

Overhauling the steelworks in the way Tata has proposed could lead to a 1.5% cut in the UK's overall carbon emissions.

In Wales, we're talking about a drop of between 15-20%.

Environmentalists aren't necessarily celebrating though.

Many of those we've spoken to say more should have been done to prepare the local area for the change and secure new green jobs for the thousands now losing theirs.

Worth remembering too that when UK emissions stats are worked out they don't take into account the carbon impact of goods we import from overseas.

And critics say what's happening to Port Talbot will leave the UK reliant on shipping in steel from countries which aren't moving as fast to greener ways of working for several years to come.

First Minister Mark Drakeford says the news "will be devastating for steelworkers and communities in Wales".

"We will carry on working to protect the future of Welsh steel production," he says in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We will do all we can to support all those affected by today’s announcement."

Image source, Getty Images

Arunoday Mukharji
BBC News, Delhi

Tata Steel has made it very clear that there were two major reasons they had to take this decision.

One, of course, was to offset the kind of losses they had been suffering.

In the last quarter of last year they had losses of about $700m (£551m) - they needed to offset that.

The company also needed to pursue a greener energy solution moving forwards.

Port Talbot currently uses blast furnaces to make new or virgin steel, explains Swansea University's Dr Becky Waldram.

Iron ore is separated into its component parts, iron and oxygen. Then a form of carbon, usually coal, is combined with the oxygen to output iron to make steel and carbon dioxide as a waste product.

Globally, this method of steelmaking emits around 2.32 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel produced.

By comparison, an electric arc furnace starts with scrap metal which is melted down using electricity to create a high-temperature arc between graphite electrodes.

"A switch to the electric arc furnace method could reduce emissions to 0.67 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of steel produced when using 100% scrap steel," Dr Waldram says.

Image source, Swansea University

Image source, Reuters

Tata Steel's statement explains why it rejected keeping the two blast furnaces open while the transition to greener technology takes place.

The company says that projections for the operating costs of this set up are "financially unaffordable".

It argues that building a new electric arc furnace in an operational steel production facility would be "fraught with risk and significantly increase costs".

Tata says such a set up would create a "sub-optimal plant layout", delay getting the new furnace installed and could bring the project down entirely.

The company also says the current facilities at Port Talbot are in a "near end-of-life condition", with several major pieces of equipment experiencing "deteriorating operating performance".

The closure of the two blast furnaces will be replaced by a new electric arc furnace, a project set to cost £1.25bn.

Tata Steel says £500m of this will be invested by the UK government, with the firm planning to put in the remaining £750m to complete the investment.

The company says this project will "secure long-term, high-quality production" in Port Talbot, with the furnace fed primarily with scrap metal from the UK.

The transition mirrors the successful installation of such low-carbon production facilities in other major steel producing markets such as the United States, where it has cut emissions while guaranteeing production of complex, high quality steel," Tata's statement adds.

The installation of the new furnace has been scheduled to be completed in 2027.

Image source, PA Media

The Welsh government's minister for economy has said Tata's annoncement leaves thousands of workers and their families "facing an uncertain future".

Vaughan Gething, who hopes to replace Mark Drakeford as Wales' first minister, says steel is one of the most important materials in a modern economy and Wales and the rest of the UK is "better off and more secure with significant, sovereign steelmaking capabilities".

"In choosing not to pursue a modern industrial strategy with steel at its core, the UK government has damaged our ability to create the long term, reliable growth that would turn net zero measures into more sustainable, green jobs in Wales."

Gething says the Welsh government has repeatedly urged the UK government to act at scale with the investment needed to support the move to greener methods of steel production.

He says today's announcement is "a social and economic body-blow with profound and far-reaching implications for Wales".

"It is our firm view that the prime minister and his cabinet do have levers at their disposal that could prevent the worst case scenario and the scale of economic loss we now face."

Among the 2,800 job cuts announced by Tata Steel today, the firm says 300 could happen in three years.

Once the restructure of the Port Talbot steel works is complete, it says there will be a "potential consolidation and rationalisation of cold rolling assets" at the Llanwern plant in Newport.

Tata Steel's chief executive office and managing director has said the announced plan is "difficult, but we believe it is the right one".

TV Narendran said the company needed to "transform at pace to build a sustainable business in the UK for the long term".

"Our ambitious plan includes the largest capital expenditure in UK steel production in more than a decade, guaranteeing long-term, high-quality steel production in the UK and transforming the Port Talbot facility into one of Europe’s premier centres for green steelmaking."

Narendran says the company will offer a "comprehensive support package to mitigate the impact of any anticipated job losses, including helping employees to retrain and find new jobs".

"We will continue our work with the UK and Welsh governments, trade unions and the community to help those who may be affected through the proposed transition."

Image source, PA Media

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak spoke to the media about Port Talbot ahead of Tata Steel's announcement, saying the government is "absolutely committed" to British steelmaking

Asked whether he was happy about the prospect of job cuts, he acknowledged that it "will be a worrying time for everyone affected".

"But what I can tell you is we are absolutely committed to steelmaking in the UK and that's why the government provided £500m to support Tata".

The PM added the alternative was the entire plant being closed, which would have led to 8,000 jobs being lost.

Sunak told reporters the company is "investing more money in order to safeguard thousands of jobs", which he said was down to the government's work with Tata Steel.

Tata Steel's statement also includes a rough timeline of when Port Talbot’s two high-emission blast furnaces and coke ovens will close.

The company says this process will be phased, with the first blast furnace closing "around mid-2024".

The "remaining heavy end assets" will then wind down "during the second half of 2024".

The proposal also includes a "wider restructuring of other locations and functions across the company", Tata Steel says

This includes plans to close a steel-processing facility known as the Continuous Annealing Processing Line in March 2025.

Tata Steel says up to 2,800 employees are expected to be potentially affected by the restructure.

About 2,500 jobs will be lost in the next 18 months.

The Indian-owned firm says it will "endeavour to maximise voluntary redundancies".

It promises a £130m support package for affected employees, including redundancy terms, community programmes, skills training and job-seeking initiatives.

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of steelworkers' union Community, says Tata's announcement is "unacceptable".

He adds: "The decision to plough ahead with the bad deal for steel first announced in September would be devastating for Port Talbot and the wider steel industry."

The UK's primary steelmaking capacity will be "decimated" he says, with carbon emissions "offshored to heavy polluting countries".

He says it's "beyond belief" that Tata is going ahead with the plans after acknowledging the union's proposal to keep one blast furnace going at Port Talbot was "serious and deliverable" with more UK government subsidies.

"We will now consult with our members and all options are on the table going forward."

Image source, Getty Images

More now from Tata, which says today's announcement is part of plans to "reverse more than a decade of losses and transition from the legacy blast furnaces to a more sustainable, green steel business".

The company adds: "The transformation would secure most of Tata Steel UK's existing product capability and maintain the country's self-sufficiency in steelmaking, while also reducing Tata Steel UK's CO2 emissions by five million tonnes per year and overall UK country emissions by about 1.5%."

Tata Steel has confirmed it will cut 2,800 jobs across its UK operations as part of plans to transition to a greener way of making steel.

Since opening as Abbey Steelworks in 1951, the huge factory has dominated the Port Talbot skyline.

The BBC has just spoken to MP Stephen Kinnock, who says the community in Port Talbot is "very concerned and also very disappointed".

The Labour MP for Aberavon says the unions from the plant had put forward a "compelling plan" to keep the one blast furnace open while a greener electric-arc furnace was built.

Kinnock says the plan would have prevented the current "cliff edge" around the UK's steel production and the potential loss of 3,000 jobs.

He says the end of Port Talbot will mean the country has lost its ability to produce steel domestically, making the UK the only country in the G20 group of industrialised nations without the capacity to do so.

"We urge Tata Steel to get back around the table with the trade unions and to look at this again."

Asked about the company's need to move to more envorinmentally friendly forms of steel production with UK government funding, Kinnock says everyone wants "cleaner, greener steel" but adds that it's a "question of how you do it".

"The plan that Tata Steel has done with the UK government, £500m for 3,000 job redundancies and removing our ability to make our own steel, is not the right way to go," he says.

Kinnock says his party has committed to a £3bn fund to produce cleaner steel, urging the company to factor in that there is likely to be a UK general election this year.

Rhydian Mizen, who worked in the Port Talbot steel works for 38 years, says Tata's plans to transition to greener steelmaking is "dreadful news for thousands of people".

"If no income is coming into households, there will be nothing coming into the town, it will be a ghost town," he says.

"I can't imagine Port Talbot without the steelworks. It's so important to be producing steel here for national security, now steel will have to be imported."

We've just heard from a union representative for Port Talbot workers, who says the workforce is "absolutely devastated".

Gary Keogh tells BBC Breakfast he and others are "very angry" at the situation.

Asked about the problem of steel production's energy use in the UK's transition away from fossil fuels, he says unions put a plan forwards to Tata for a "green furnace" to be used.

Keough, who works at the Port Talbot plant, says this was "completely rejected" by bosses.

After it is put to him Tata says it is losing more than £1m a day at Port Talbot, he casts doubt on the figure from what he calls the company's "propaganda machine".

"Honestly, I don't believe those figures are factual."

Keogh concedes the plant is losing money, but says this is because of Tata's strategy and accuses them of a "failure of investment" in the facility.

On whether unions will strike, he says:

Wales' First Minister Mark Drakeford has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak asking for an urgent meeting on the job losses.

"I am sure you will agree with me the loss of production of virgin steel at scale will have a profound impact on the UK's economy," he says in the letter.

"I would ask if you and I could have an urgent discussion regarding this strategic matter at your earliest convenience."

A Welsh government spokesman told BBC Wales: "Number 10 has confirmed that the prime minister is not available to take a call on Tata."

The BBC has asked Downing Street for a response.

Image source, Getty Images