Tata Steel Port Talbot steel plant, also known as Port Talbot steelworks, is a steel plant in Port Talbot, Wales, United Kingdom that operates blast furnace (BF), basic oxygen furnace (BOF), and electric arc furnace (EAF) technology.
In January 2020, Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of the Tata Sons group that owns the Port Talbot plant, said the plant needs to be "self-sustaining." Tata Steel's 2017-2018 pre-tax losses were £371 million, up from £222 million in 2017-18.[1] A planned merger between Tata and German steel company ThyssenKrupp was blocked by the European Commission over competition concerns in June 2019.[1] In 2021, Port Talbot reported a £347 million loss despite £1 billion in equity to support the company, stating costs increased due partly to Brexit; it also cut employees by about 400.[2]
Tata Steel plans to install emissions reduction technologies on the Port Talbot blast furnaces and to continue operating them without plans to transition to electric arc furnace (EAF) production. The company claims that the process of constructing EAFs and decommissioning BFs would cost approximately USD $3 billion. [3]
History
Port Talbot works
The original works were built by Gilbertson, and situated south of Port Talbot railway station. Constructed in 1901–5, the works was named after Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot of Margam Castle, the principal sponsor of the developments at Port Talbot docks, which had opened in 1837.[4] The site was closed in 1961 and demolished in 1963.[4] The General Offices housed Port Talbot magistrates' court until 2012, but the rest of the site is an industrial estate.[4]
Margam works
Steelmaking at the Port Talbot complex began with the Margam Iron and Steel Works, completed between 1923 and 1926.[5][6]
Abbey works
Abbey Steelworks was planned in 1947 and is believed to be named after the Cistercian Margam Abbey that used to be on the site – a small amount of the original building still stands (protected) within the site that survived the dissolution of the monasteries. Several steel manufacturers in South Wales pooled their resources to form the Steel Company of Wales, to construct a modern integrated steelworks on a site then owned by Guest, Keen and Baldwins (GKN).[5] However, political manoeuvring led to tinplate production being retained in its original heartland further west, at two new works in Trostre and Felindre.[5] Opened in 1951, it was fully operational by 1953.[5]
Once the new No.4 and 5 furnaces began production, the older furnaces (No. 1 and 2) built in the 1920s, were demolished.[7] No.3 furnace, built in 1941, was retained as a stand-by, where it stood disused until demolished in the mid-2000s.[7]
Divestment
Tata Steel announced on March 30, 2016 it is to pull out of its UK operations, including Port Talbot.[8] It provided as reasons "imports of Chinese steel, high energy costs and weak demand ".[8] Plans to save the steelworks were put on hold when potential buyers indicated their intention to withdraw from the bidding process due to the UK voting in favor of withdrawing from the EU.[9] Port Talbot cut around 1,050 jobs that year.[10]
Environmental Compliance
Tata Steel plans to install emissions reduction technologies on blast furnaces and continue operating them, indicating that they are not planning a transition to EAF from BF-BOF. Tata sites that constructing EAFs and decommissioning BFs would cost approximately 3 billion USD.[11]
To access additional data, including an interactive map of steel power plants, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Iron and Steel Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.
↑ 8.08.1Graham Ruddick, Heather Stewart (30 March 2016). "Tata Steel to sell off entire British business". The Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2016. Tata blames cheap imports of Chinese steel, high energy costs and weak demand
