Port Talbot’s final blast furnace is closing, bringing gloom to the steel town

Alun Davies views the steam plumes rising from Port Talbot’s last blast-furnace, which will soon be shut down. Davies, the National Officer for the Steelworkers’ Union Community and former steelworker for nine years, describes the mood in the south Wales iron town as “heartbreaking”.

He says, “It is smashed into pieces.” You could be watching families and people fall apart. I’m speechless. It’s shocking. “I’ve lived in steel my whole life, and it’s heartbreaking.” He shows a picture of workers lining up at the blast furnace to finish their final shift. “I just received this. It’s my old job. “It’s personal to me.” After years of heavy losses, Tata, the Indian owner of the company, shut down blast furnace 5 in July. finally announced that the last blast furnace would be closed at the end September. In the next few months, 1,900 jobs are expected to be lost.

The unions claim that for each job lost in the steel mill, three to four other jobs will be supported in the community. This is a large number of jobs that are likely to be affected by the massive losses. Since Cistercian Monks first made tools on the grounds of Margam Abbey, iron has been melted in this part of South Wales. Port Talbot, which employed more than 18,000 workers in the 1960s was Europe’s largest steel complex.

After the closure, the last British blast furnace is located at the British Steel Plant in Scunthorpe. Tata is making a transition to a more environmentally friendly form of steelmaking. The company will also build a £1.25bn electrical arc furnace at the Port Talbot location by 2027.

Vichuda Hunter-Hunt, who is serving customers in Portablo Coffi, in Aberafan’s shopping centre, says that her husband Cassius, fourth-generation steelworker and a coffee shop employee, will not be in the coffee shop Monday because he is at the plant. She says, “He’ll come in tomorrow.” “We’ve been open for 6 months, and many customers have come to support him. But the job losses are concerning.” Suzanne Hopkins, owner of Cash & Carry Carpets, echoes her sentiment. There will be a negative impact on businesses, cafes and companies that rely on the steelworkers.

Mustafa Bilen is a barber in the town who says that he’s “very upset” by the job losses. He has also noticed customers being more cautious. He says that people used to visit him every three weeks, but now they come every four weeks or two months. Jack Harper, 28, an ex-apprentice at Tata, who was laid off in this month, now works for Community as a project worker at the newly opened steelworkers support centre at Aberafan shopping center. After eight years of service in the Army, Jack Harper joined Tata as an apprentice. His cousin is employed at the plant.

He says, “I didn’t know what to do after I left the military. “I believed the steelworks were a large employer that was not going anywhere, so I took a huge wage cut and became an apprentice. “It is a sad day – many of these men have worked on furnaces for over 30 years. Some of them have been there all their working lives. Some people have never created a CV.

Port Talbot has a long history of steelworks links. Jeremy Hurley is a 60-year-old councillor and cabinet member at Neath Port Talbot Council for climate change. He volunteers at Tonmawr Rugby Club where a Tata coach and 7 players are employed. He was a Tata contractor and his two sons, and niece are all employed by the firm. He says that at council meetings, when asked to identify those who have an interest in Port Talbot, “at least half of the people raised their hands.” It’s going be a sad, but necessary day. The closure of the Port Talbot will have an enormous impact on the local community. I know that in the background there are projects that can help make the transition easier.

Jo Stevens (Welsh secretary) who chairs the Tata/Port Talbot Transition Board said that £13.5m has already been released for suppliers affected by closures. She says the blast furnace closure is “poignant”. Stevens, who grew up in north Wales as a teenager, remembers vividly the 1980 closure of the Shotton blast furnaces, which resulted in the loss of 6,500 job in one day.

She says, “We can’t see what I saw in Shotton back in the 80s. It took decades for Shotton to recover.” It’s hard to explain but literally everyone was thrown under the bus overnight. Everyone at my local high school had family members or friends who worked in the steelwork industry or supply chain. “It happened over night and was devastating.”

Many are concerned that the fate of Port Talbot will be repeated at British Steel’s Scunthorpe site in Lincolnshire. The plant’s Chinese owner Jingye could close the UK’s remaining blast-furnaces before the year’s end, putting 2,500 more jobs at risk.

If these closures are implemented, Britain will become the only G20 major economy that is unable to produce primary steel from iron ore and coke. Politicians and unions have warned about the dangers to the UK economy and its security if it cannot produce primary steel.

The new Labour Government agreed earlier this month to a taxpayer backed deal for the Port Talbot Plant, in which Tata will pay £750m and the Labour Government will contribute £500m. Electric arc furnaces are more efficient and environmentally friendly. They create 500 jobs during construction. The electric arc furnace is expected to become operational by late 2027. Rajesh Nair is the CEO of Tata Steel. He said that he “deeply aware” of the difficulty of closing the last blast-furnace in Port Talbot. He said that during the transition, they were doing all they could to minimize the impact of the changes on those affected.

The union leaders are still upset that they could not reach a better agreement earlier this year. Tata’s management rejected their alternative plan, which would have kept one blast furnace in Port Talbot operating until 2032. This would have reduced the number of job losses. Sharon Graham, Unite’s general secretary, referred to the job losses as “industrial vandalism”.

Stephen Kinnock (Labour MP for Aberafan Maesteg) criticised the Tory government for “a bad steel deal that offered Tata £500m without any strings attached to jobs”. He claimed that Labour had secured concessions in areas like redundancy and retraining from Tata.

Standing outside the gates of the plant, he said: “Ofcourse we have to acknowledge this is a very sad day.” “My heart goes to all the steelworkers and their families, who will be facing an uncertain future now. But we also know that this is inevitable because of the market’s movement.”

Port Talbot has already received a response from more than 2,000 workers who have expressed interest in voluntary redundancy. They will also receive a better deal. Alan Coombs is a representative of the Community Union and chair of the Multi-Union at Port Talbot. He says that as he gazes over the sprawling site he gets a lump in his throat.

He says, “As far I’m concern it’s the worse-case scenario to be a blast furnace worker.”