Tata Steel brought forward the closure of its Port Talbot blast furnaces in late June 2024 after the Unite union announced a strike starting on 8 July. Workers were told on 28 June that the company would begin preparing to close both furnaces on 1 July and have them safely shut down by 7 July, because the strike meant it could no longer guarantee safe operations. The original plan had been for one furnace to close at the end of June and the second by the end of September. Tata said the Port Talbot site was losing about 1 million pounds a day and that the closure would affect around 1,900 staff at the plant, with more jobs at risk at other Tata sites. The furnaces are being replaced by an electric arc furnace under a 1.25 billion pound investment, backed by up to 500 million pounds of UK government support, as part of the shift to greener steelmaking.
Source: Business Live — https://www.business-live.co.uk/enterprise/early-shutdown-tata-steels-port-29436476?int_source=mantis_rec&int_medium=web&int_campaign=more_like_this
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