Ships have been bringing coking coal into Port Talbot’s deep water harbour for 50 years to feed the giant steel plant that dominates the Welsh town. Earlier this month, however, the port closed. No more ships will call because the plant’s two blast furnaces, which used the coke to make steel, are closing.
Under a taxpayer-funded deal unveiled on Wednesday between the government and India’s Tata Group, which owns Britain’s largest steelmaker, the plant will replace the furnaces with a less-polluting electric arc furnace leading to the loss of about 2,500 jobs.
Both sides hailed the £1.25bn investment — which includes £500mn of taxpayer support — as the largest for the industry for decades. Port Talbot has long been the UK’s largest single carbon emitter, and the change in technology will be critical to the UK’s drive to meet net zero climate targets. But whether steelmaking has a viable future in the UK — and in what form — still hangs in the balance.