Tata Steel warns of possible early shutdown of facilities in Port Talbot

Steelmaker Tata Steel warns that the shutdown of blast furnace operations at its Port Talbot facility in the UK may begin earlier than planned. This is reported by Reuters.

At the same time, the steel company is challenging the legal grounds for the strike organized by the Unite trade union. Last week, the latter said that about 1.5 thousand workers would go on an indefinite strike on July 8 due to Tata Steel’s plans to close two blast furnaces and cut up to 2.8 thousand jobs.

«In the coming days, if we are not confident that we can continue to operate our assets safely and sustainably during the strike period, we will have no choice but to suspend or stop heavy end operations – including both blast furnaces – at the Port Talbot plant,» a Tata Steel spokesman said.

According to The Guardian, the company planned to shut down one of the blast furnaces by the end of June this year and the other by September. However, workers in South Wales have been informed that Tata intends to shut down both units no later than July 7 due to a strike.

According to a company spokesperson, this is not an easy decision and the steelmaker is aware that it could be extremely costly and disruptive to the supply chain, but the safety of people in or around their facilities will always be a priority.

The British unions Community and GMB are also campaigning against Tata Steel’s plans, but have ruled out strikes before the general election. They expect the new Labor government to hold emergency talks with the company to discuss alternatives to its proposals.

The Welsh government, in turn, said it would not support the closure of both blast furnaces. They believe that the company should wait for the results of the general election (to be held on July 4) before making irreversible decisions.

Earlier, Tata Steel announced that it would continue to close heavy assets and restructure at its Port Talbot facility despite concerns that the upcoming UK general election could jeopardize its £1.25 billion investment plans. The company called on the current and future governments after the election to honor the agreement and protect the agreed terms of the decarbonization support package.