ADVERTISEMENT
LONDON: Britain plans to pump 500 million pounds ($621 million) into Tata Steel to decarbonize its Wales site in a deal aimed at securing the future of the country’s steel industry but putting as many as 3,000 jobs at risk brings.
The £1.3bn financing package for Britain’s largest steelworks includes a £750m investment from Tata to pay for the switch to electric arc furnaces with lower emissions than current coal-fired methods.
While Britain said Friday’s deal would help secure 5,000 jobs, Tata Steel UK currently employs more than 8,000 people, raising the prospect of 3,000 redundancies as its low-carbon electric furnaces are less labor intensive.
Business and Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch said the deal was the right thing for Britain and the wider workforce. “We are saving jobs that would have been lost… without this investment we would probably have seen the end of steel production, especially in this part of the country,” she said.
India’s Tata Steel had long warned that it could close its Port Talbot facility without government help. Britain said the new electric ovens would reduce the country’s overall CO2 emissions by around 1.5%. The UK government is under pressure from companies to help finance the transition to green energy. Reuters
The £1.3bn financing package for Britain’s largest steelworks includes a £750m investment from Tata to pay for the switch to electric arc furnaces with lower emissions than current coal-fired methods.
While Britain said Friday’s deal would help secure 5,000 jobs, Tata Steel UK currently employs more than 8,000 people, raising the prospect of 3,000 redundancies as its low-carbon electric furnaces are less labor intensive.
Business and Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch said the deal was the right thing for Britain and the wider workforce. “We are saving jobs that would have been lost… without this investment we would probably have seen the end of steel production, especially in this part of the country,” she said.
India’s Tata Steel had long warned that it could close its Port Talbot facility without government help. Britain said the new electric ovens would reduce the country’s overall CO2 emissions by around 1.5%. The UK government is under pressure from companies to help finance the transition to green energy. Reuters
ADVERTISEMENT
