Talks over the future of the UK’s biggest steel plant in south Wales are set to take place between its owner and union officials, as a crisis in the industry that has claimed thousands of jobs deepens.
The Community trade union said it would meet Tata Steel following media speculation about potential job losses at the Port Talbot steelworks, which employs some 3,500 people. Thousands more work in the supply chain.
“[We] will be meeting with Tata Steel in the coming weeks to discuss these reports and how best we can build a sustainable steel industry together,” said a spokesperson for the union.
Reports at the end of last week suggested that the site, which makes steel used in carmaking, engineering and consumer goods, was at risk of closure and that a restructuring of the business was likely in order to save the plant. Local MP Stephen Kinnock told ITV News that redundancies could number “the hundreds”.
The British steelmaking industry has been hit in the past year by a toxic mix of falling prices, high energy costs and the impact of a strong pound. About 5,000 jobs were shed or earmarked for loss in 2015, from a workforce that was 30,000-strong at the start of the year.
This included 2,200 employees at the historic Redcar steelworks in Teesside, north-east England, which closed permanently in October following the collapse of Thai owner SSI UK.
Throughout last year, Tata Steel also said it planned to cut about 1,900 positions at locations such as Rotherham and Scunthorpe, while a restructuring in one division saw Scotland’s last two steel mills mothballed.
Although companies around the world accuse China of flooding markets with cheap steel, British producers say UK environmental taxes put them at a disadvantage.
The government has introduced compensation for these taxes, but the steel industry is also lobbying for more use of UK goods in public construction projects and reform of business rates.