Concern over future of Tata plant following furnace closure in Port Talbot

A Plaid Cymru MS has expressed concern about the impact the closure of Port Talbot's blast furnaces could have on Tata's Shotton plant.

The last blast furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks was shut down on Monday leaving it unable to make its own steel.

Nearly 2,000 jobs will be lost at the plant as blast furnace number four ceases production. The site will enter a transition phase until 2027 when steelmaking will resume using a £1.25 billion electric arc furnace.

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Steel coils

The Shotton plant on Deeside employs more than 700 workers and is reliant on coils of steel from Port Talbot but as it can no longer produce virgin steel, this will have to sourced from elsewhere.

Llyr Gruffydd, who represents north Wales in the Senedd, said: "The impact of the closure of the Port Talbot blast furnaces is also felt here on Deeside, which is reliant on high-quality steel to produce specialist coated products. There are other sources for the steel within Tata - for example its plant in the Netherlands - but it's important that the quality is maintained.

"The quality is an issue for the new proposed Electric Arc furnace that is meant to be built in Port Talbot. There is talk of them having a Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) facility to enable them to produce high-quality products but it's important that the company delivers on that so that the future of Shotton is assured well into the future."

'Transition'

He added: "There has been a shocking lack of long-term planning in the need to transition to a greener way to produce steel and I - and my colleagues in Plaid Cymru - are determined to ensure that Wales continues to be a steel-making country with the high-quality jobs that entails.

"We will continue to press the UK and Welsh Governments to make sure that is the case going forwards."

Just last year Tata Steel invested £3m at the Shotton plant to upgrade its colour coating paint process in a bid to improve quality and make cost savings by reducing paint use by 650,000 litres a year.