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Tata Steel: No way blast furnaces can stay, says chief exec

Getty Images Workers in Tata steelGetty Images
Tata was accused of not listening by the chair of committee Rajesh Nair appeared before

The boss of Tata Steel UK has robustly defended plans to close both its blast furnaces in Port Talbot, putting nearly 2,000 jobs there at risk of redundancy.

Tata intends installing an electric furnace, which would use recycled steel and need fewer workers to run.

Unions and politicians have called for at least one blast furnace to be kept open to maintain virgin steel making.

But Rajesh Nair said for technical and financial reasons "there is no way the blast furnaces can be kept going".

He appeared before the Senedd's economy committee whose chair, Conservative MS Paul Davies, described the session as "deeply disheartening and devastating for Wales' steel industry".

Mr Nair told Senedd members the blast furnaces, to close this year under the plans, and other facilities at the plant were "towards the end of life" and their "reliability is compromised".

He said it there was a need to proceed with the electric arc plans "at pace" as the business was set to be in the red by £500m this financial year "if nothing else were to go wrong".

The new electric furnace would be built within a facility used in the steel-making process, a steel shop, he said, meaning the blast furnaces would have to close during the transition to a greener form of production.

"If you don't have a steel shop that is operating, there is no way the blast furnaces can be kept going," said Mr Nair.

Senedd Cymru Rajesh Nair appearing before the Senedd's economy committeeSenedd Cymru
Rajesh Nair said Tata's plans were considered "very, very carefully"

The closure of the blast furnaces would also affect workers in Llanwern in Newport, Shotton in Flintshire, Trostre in Carmarthenshire and Swansea University, as well as several sites in England.

Committee chair Mr Davies later accused Tata of being "unequivocal" and "not listening" despite "huge opposition, and the terrible effects the closure of the blast furnaces will have on the workforce, their families and communities across south Wales".

"This week the whole Senedd unanimously agreed that there is a viable future for the blast furnace - this has been completely ignored," he said.

"Today we are calling on Tata to reconsider their position and to keep the blast furnace open."

Not a 'done deal'

On Tuesday night, Conservatives joined Senedd members from the other three party members in calling for the company to keep a blast furnace open while the new electric one is built to allow a "longer transition" and protect jobs.

The UK government has said it will contribute £500m towards the £1.25bn cost of the electric furnace.

Conservative Welsh Secretary David TC Davies previously said that UK ministers had been forced to "choose between three thousand people losing their jobs and seventeen-and-a-half thousand people losing their jobs".

Before Mr Nair have evidence at the committee on Wednesday, Wales' Economy Minister Vaughan Gething said conversations continued between Tata, the Welsh and UK governments and leading Labour figures at Westminster.

Mr Gething, one of two candidates to be Welsh Labour leader and first minister, added: "I think it is important to recognise that I don't think this is a done deal, and I don't think this is something where there is absolutely zero chance of a different future."