Traditional steelmaking in Port Talbot ends
· BBC NewsHuw Thomas
Business correspondent, BBC Wales News
@huwthomas
Reporting from
Port Talbot
Paul Pigott
BBC News
Steelworkers have drilled the final hole in the last remaining blast furnace in Port Talbot, bringing to an end the traditional method of steelmaking in south Wales.
Tata Steel removed the last usable liquid iron from blast furnace 4 - which will eventually be replaced with electric arc furnaces - on Monday afternoon.
The controversial move at the UK’s largest steelworks is part of a restructure that will cut 2,800 jobs.
Tata said it was “deeply conscious” of how difficult the closure was, while Unite called the closure “industrial vandalism”.
Future steelmaking in Port Talbot will rely on imports until an electric furnace, which melts scrap steel, is built.
The move has created uncertainty for both those who work at the steelworks and those in other industries.
Adam Beechey, 33, spent five years working at Tata and hopes to find work there in the future, but admitted his is a "job at risk".
"It’s not nice. When I took this job it was a job for life in my head," he said.
Mr Beechey – who worked in the heavy end where hot liquid steels is cast into steel blocks – said generations of his family, going back to his great-grandfather, worked in steelmaking there.
"I think I speak for everyone around here in saying it’s worrying times and not just for the people working at Tata – it’s the small businesses," he said.
One of those businesses is a barbershop owned by Alan Aco that overlooks at the steelworks.
Mr Aco, 42, opened his shop seven years ago and said his customers are on edge about what will happen next.
He said many residents of the town are "depressed".
"They’ve got bills to pay and it’s not that easy to just find another job," he said.
But not everyone in Port Talbot was unhappy to see the steelworks closed.
One woman, who did not want her name used, told BBC Wales she was “glad” to see the site close because of "all the dust we’ve been living with".
Another woman, Charlotte Rodgerson, said the "terrible" dust has meant her children have been in and out of hospital with chest problems since moving to the town.
"It’s just awful and the smell is disgusting," she added.
Others were keen to highlight that Port Talbot’s story is not just one of steel.
Iona Walker-Hunt, 17, hopes that the next time the media come to the town "it’s for a film festival – not steel".
"A lot of people think Port Talbot is just the steelworkers, but it’s not. There’s so much more,” said Ms Walker-Hunt, whose dad Nigel is an ex-steelworker who started his own business after being made redundant in 2015.
"Obviously it’s sad for everyone losing their job, but I also think it’s an opportunity to start something new and start a better name for the town," she said.
Rajesh Nair, Tata Steel’s chief executive, said he was “deeply conscious” of how difficult the closure of the last blast furnace has been.
He said the company was doing "everything possible to minimise the impact" of the closure, calling it a "significant event in the history of iron and steelmaking in the UK".
"It is important at this juncture to pause, recognise and credit the huge contribution of the many thousands of people and the technologies that have sustained our industry and communities here for generations," he added.
Meanwhile, Unite, the union that has represented many of the workers at Port Talbot, called the closure "industrial vandalism".
General secretary Sharon Graham criticised the former Conservative government, saying "years of wilful neglect and underinvestment... has led us to this place".
She welcomed the new Labour government’s "two-stage commitment to provide investment" for steelmaking in south Wales, but called on it to ensure that jobs are guaranteed.
Blast furnaces produce molten iron by splitting rocks containing iron ore.
It is a chemical reaction that requires intense heat, and which emits high levels of carbon into the atmosphere.
It is known as primary steelmaking, or virgin steelmaking, as it extracts iron from its original source and can be purified and treated to make all types of steel.
The BBC was given permission to record inside the blast furnace during its final days of operation.
James Raleigh, who has been involved in operating both blast furnaces in Port Talbot, said: "I have been in there quite a few times, but it is still very impressive to me."
The works technical manager for the coke, sinter and iron department added: "Working in this industry, the scale of it is absolutely huge. It is still very impressive every time I go in there."
Temperatures inside the furnace reach more than 2,000C (3,632F) with liquid iron "tapped" by workers flowing out at a temperature of around 1,500C (2,732F).
The first of Port Talbot's two blast furnaces was taken out of service in July, while the closure of the second will mark the end of primary steelmaking in Wales.
Tata Steel UK has consistently said that its blast furnace operations were losing £1m a day, and it will invest £1.25bn in an electric arc furnace which would reduce emissions and secure the future of steelmaking.
The UK government has committed £500m towards the cost of the new technology, with construction set to begin in August 2025.
In the meantime, imported steel slab will be milled in Port Talbot to continue supplying customers and Tata's downstream sites in Trostre, Llanwern and Shotton.
Prof Geraint Williams from Swansea University said the end of blast furnace production was "a turning-point in steelmaking" in the UK.
"You are removing the capacity of the UK to be able to produce its own primary steel," he said.
"What is produced in an electric arc furnace isn't primary steel. What you're doing is recycling steel. You're re-melting it."
Prof Williams said the closure of Port Talbot's furnaces, and the expected closure of the UK's last remaining blast furnaces in Scunthorpe, signalled a major change in the country's industrial history.
He added: "Great Britain is the birthplace of the industrial revolution, so it's very surprising that - eventually - we will lose the ability to produce steel from scratch."