Steelworkers face months of uncertainty over Port Talbot

THOUSANDS of steelworkers face months of uncertainty about their jobs after the Government deferred a decision on a bailout of the Port Talbot mill in Wales.

Bosses at Tata Steel UK, which owns Port Talbot, have demanded £1.5bn to help with decarbonising the plant, threatening to shut the mill without financial assistance.

However, Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, is understood to be waiting until a new prime minister is in place before taking any decision. Whether the new government plays ball will be up to whoever wins the Conservative leadership race, according to government sources.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, the chairman of Tata, said his business needed help to hit the Government’s green targets. Mr Chandrasekaran’s threat to shut Port Talbot was branded as “shocking” by the plant workers’ biggest union, while the Welsh government called for an “urgent resolution”. Around 4,000 people work at the site.

Tata also owns Jaguar Land Rover and Tetley tea in the UK, as well as land, chemicals and engineering firms in India. It is trying to simplify its empire, keeping profitable businesses and selling or shutting underperforming ones.

Mr Chandrasekaran has indicated previously that the steel works must be self-sustaining. The plant’s holding company, Tata Steel UK, has struggled to cover its costs in the past.

It posted its first pretax profit in 13 years in 2021 but the £82m earned was a slim margin that will leave it struggling to sustain the £3bn of investment needed to clean up the plant.

A Welsh Government spokesman said: “We have repeatedly called on UK ministers to urgently bring forward a package of support to secure steel-making at Port Talbot. Welsh Government officials are today engaging with the company, UK Government and trades unions to seek an urgent resolution.”

A spokesman for Community, the steelworkers’ union and the largest trade union at Tata Steel, said: “This intervention from Tata is shocking, and has been made without any consultation with the trade unions... Tata’s comments make a mockery of the company’s commitments to an open and transparent dialogue with the unions.”