Tata Steel has announced that it will be cutting 2,800 jobs across the UK, as it shuts down two of the UK's last remaining blast furnaces.
It is part of the company's part of plans to transition to a greener way of making steel.
The two blast furnaces in Port Talbot, south Wales, will close, whilst the company builds electric arc furnaces instead.
Tata said the move will "reverse more than a decade of losses and transition from the legacy blast furnaces to a more sustainable, green steel business".
Tata Steel confirms that the two blast furnaces in Port Talbot, south Wales, will close
GettyIt added: "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 per cent."
The shutdown will be done in a phased manner, the company said.
The first blast furnace will close around mid-2024 and then the remaining assets will cease functioning in the second half of the year.
"The course we are putting forward is difficult, but we believe it is the right one," Tata Steel Chief Executive T V Narendran said.
"We must transform at pace to build a sustainable business in the UK for the long-term."
Tala Steel, owned by the Tata group in India, employs more than 8,000 people in the UK.
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The first blast furnace will close around mid-2024 and then the remaining assets will cease functioning in the second half of the year
PAOver the next 18 months, 2,800 workers will be laid off.
The Indian-owned firm says it will "endeavour to maximise voluntary redundancies".
The electric arc furnaces that will replace the blast furnaces require fewer workers to operate them.
The GMB trade union said the job losses are a “crushing blow to Port Talbot and UK manufacturing in general”.
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, national officer for steel for the union, said: “It doesn’t have to be that way - unions provided a realistic, costed alternative that would rule out all compulsory redundancies.”
Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of steelworkers' union Community, labelled the announcement as "unacceptable".
He added: "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."
British Steel announced last year that it will close furnaces and replace them with eco-options
GB NewsAndrew RT Davies MS, Leader of the Welsh Conservatives, reacted to the news: "Today is an incredibly difficult day for Wales, my thoughts are with those steel workers and subcontractors who will be losing their jobs in the coming months and their families. This situation must be handled with care by all decision makers involved - I’m confident that the transition board will achieve this.
"I remain unconvinced that a blast furnace could not be kept open during the transition to the arc furnaces that Tata have agreed to, protecting many jobs in the short to medium term - this needs to be explained fully as to why this hasn’t been done by the company.
"Many thousands of jobs have been protected, with record investment from the UK Conservative Government, the story of Port Talbot Steel is far from over with its sustainable future secured.”
In November, British Steel announced that two thousand jobs are at risk in Scunthorpe after it revealed it would be shutting down its blast furnaces.
The business outlined plans to shut down the furnaces in order to replace them with two new electric arc furnaces which which will help it looks to transform into a "green and sustainable company".
Sunak has defended the Tata Steel decision
One new electric arc furnace will be built in Scunthorpe and another at its Teesside plant.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the Government is “absolutely committed” to British steelmaking, when asked about expected plans for Tata Steel to close both blast furnaces at its biggest UK plant, threatening more than 3,000 job losses.
Asked whether he was happy about the prospect of job cuts, Mr Sunak told broadcasters: “I know first of all that it will be a worrying time for everyone affected, and because it’s a commercially sensitive matter, and people appreciate there’s a limit to what I can say.
“But what I can tell you is we are absolutely committed to steelmaking in the UK and that’s why the Government provided half a billion pounds to support Tata.
“The alternative, by the way, was it, the entire plant, will be closed and all 8,000 jobs will be lost, but the Government worked with the company.
Unions met with Tata on Thursday after presenting alternative proposals aimed at saving jobs in Port Talbot, south Wales, however the company rejected the plans.
Unions will consult their members on how to respond to job losses, with industrial action not being ruled out.
