‘Poignant day for the British Steel industry’ as Port Talbot’s last blast furnace closes

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TATA Steel’s last blast furnace at Port Talbot will cease operations this afternoon, marking the end of more than 100 years of traditional steelmaking at the site.

Constructed in the late 1950s, Blast Furnace 4 is set to make its final batch of virgin steel at 17:00, reports Sky News.

The blast furnace will be replaced with an electric arc furnace (EAF), which Tata says will begin construction by August 2025, and be operational by 2028.

Job losses

Blast Furnace 5 closed in July, preceded by a series of decommissioning works at the plant this year, including its Morfa coke ovens in March.

Tata Steel UK has consistently said its blast furnace operations were losing £1m a day, and the introduction of the EAF will help the company become financially stable.

However, the green transition will result in the loss of 2,800 jobs at Port Talbot, much to the dismay of unions.

Roy Rickhuss, Community Union general secretary, said: “Today marks an incredibly poignant day for the British steel industry and for the communities in and around Port Talbot which are so intricately connected to blast furnace steelmaking.”

He added: “The closure of the furnace marks the end of an era, but this is not the end for Port Talbot. We will never stop fighting for our steel industry and our communities in South Wales."

CO2 efficiency

Steelworks across the globe are transitioning from traditional steelmaking to electrified production as the process produces less CO2 emissions. Tata expects the move to an EAF will reduce CO2 by 5m t/y.

The company aims to produce net-zero steel by 2045 and reduce 30% of its CO2 emissions by 2030.

Tata’s transition will cost around £1.25bn (US$1.68bn), almost half of which is funded by the UK Government’s Grant Funding Agreement.

For now, Tata will continue to rely on steel imports to Port Talbot to meet customer demand, importing around 333,000 t in the last six months.