Ripping the heart out of a vital industry & community
The Port Talbot steelworks is the beating heart of our local economy, providing 4,000 wellpaid steel jobs and thousands more in the local supply chain.
But it is also the backbone of our wider national manufacturing sector – from our automotive industry to our railways, from consumer goods to wind turbines.
Global demand for steel is growing and we need our domestic steel production now more than ever, for good local jobs, the transition to a greener economy and our national security in a turbulent world.
But the agreement to transition to a greener electric arc furnace-only model – entirely based on recycling scrap – will limit the quality and quantity of steel we can make in Port Talbot.
It will only increase dependence on imported steel from countries whose governments won’t always have Britain’s best interests at heart.
PROMISED
Worst of all, it fails to offer the bridge to green steelmaking that steelworkers were promised.
The traditional blast furnaces will be turned off very quickly and the job losses will be faster and more numerous than necessary.
And the Tata-Tory deal will simply serve to shift production, well-paid jobs and carbon emissions overseas.
More steel will be imported by Tata from India, whose steelmaking processes produce 30-40% more carbon than Britain’s. The Government is paying Tata £500million to make 2,800 steelworkers redundant.
The two-phase multi-union plan would have protected 2,300 jobs nationwide over a decade and meant no compulsory redundancies at Port Talbot.
Blast Furnace Number 4 would run until the end of its life cycle in 2032, while new technologies would ensure the UK retains its strategically important capability to produce virgin steel.
Labour has promised a £3billion steel renewal fund to help Britain seize the opportunities of the future.
But instead Tata have chosen to embrace the rudderless Tory Government’s vision for the managed decline of our precious steel industry – and my constituency will pay the price.