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The owners of Port Talbot steelworks defended their decision to cut thousands of jobs at the south Wales factory in evidence to MPs this week, as they prepared to raise the possibility of creating further jobs in the UK in the future. doing.
Indian conglomerate Tata confirmed this month that it plans to close two blast furnaces in Port Talbot, potentially cutting up to 2,800 jobs and a further 300 at another site in Llanwelln. There is sex.
The company and the government have faced criticism from MPs and trade unions, who say jobs could have been saved with more investment and state support.
Tata Steel’s global chief executive TV Narendran and UK chief executive Rajesh Naar spoke about the impact of the company’s decision on local communities, the Welsh economy and the future of the British steel industry on Tuesday. He is scheduled to appear before MPs on the issue committee. Sectors are considered.
Tata’s decision to close its blast furnace, along with a similar decision by Chinese-owned British Steel in Scunthorpe, caused consternation among MPs as it meant Britain would no longer be able to make primary steel directly from iron ore. .
In a letter sent to employees and the government this weekend and seen by the Guardian, Tata Steel sought to “fact-check” claims made in the press about its decision, but it said it was “misleading”. ” was shown.
Tata is expected to insist that it is willing to invest in a new plant to produce direct reduced iron (DRI). DRI is a technology that uses methane and hydrogen to produce iron and feed it into a new electric furnace.
The big advantage of the DRI process is that it produces steel with zero carbon emissions. This means that DRI processes are likely to play an important role in decarbonization. Tata said it would also replace about 200 jobs under threat in Port Talbot, but thousands would still be out of work.
“Tata Steel has also made it clear that it is open to further investments, such as direct reduced iron (DRI) plants, given the right investment and policy environment,” the document said. If business conditions are suitable and the government supports further investment in the future, he will consider the possibility of his DRI plant in the UK. ”
The document also directly addressed the prospects of a Labor government, adding that the company was “open to further investment in the future” but wanted to bring the Port Talbot plant back into profit first. Labor has announced a £3 billion investment in the steel industry and is seriously considering supporting hydrogen steelmaking as an option.
However, some politicians, including local MPs, may be skeptical of suggestions that Tata should be given another hundreds of millions of pounds in subsidies so soon after pledging around £1 billion in support. . Half of that will go towards Port Talbot’s switch to electric furnaces, which will help rebuild new steel from Britain’s wealth of scrap, and the rest will help Tata, which also owns Jaguar Land Rover, build a giant factory to make electric car batteries. We plan to help build it.
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Tata executives said Tata had been an “incredibly patient investor” in the British steel mill since it acquired it in 2007, but had not made any profits or dividends. I plan to make a claim.
The document is understood to contain the core claims that Mr Narendran and Mr Nair intend to make at the committee hearing. The committee will also hear evidence from Vaughan Gething, the Welsh Government’s economy minister, as well as representatives from local communities, the GMB and Unite trade unions.
Tata plans to import semi-finished steel slabs from sites in India and the Netherlands before the electric furnace comes online in 2027. GMB is expected to claim that steel imported during the construction of electric furnaces is likely to have a high carbon content, even before emissions generated during transport to the UK are taken into account.
Unions have previously criticized Tata for emphasizing efforts to reduce emissions in the UK while simultaneously building a polluting new blast furnace in Kalinganagar, India.
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