Tata Steel is building a huge new blast furnace in India while shutting its furnace in Port Talbot. Tata announced that the company had successfully commissioned India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar in Odisha.
Tata said the investment would “significantly boost the plant’s overall production capabilities”. It comes in the same week it was revealed 4,000 jobs will be lost at Tata’s Port Talbot site as part of the deal which will see the a new plant built to recycle old steel instead.
Earlier this month the UK government signed the deal to give Tata £500 mn. The deal, originally announced under the previous Conservative government, was confirmed by Labour’s cabinet minister Jonathan Reynolds.
The deal means the company, which is contributing the remaining £750 mn of the £1.25 bn plan, can progress its plan to build an electric arc furnace to recycle previously-used steel at Port Talbot. A joint statement from the community and GMB trade unions said the deal was "not something to celebrate" but is "the best possible deal".
Port Talbot's electric arc furnace will require significantly less manpower. It is estimated the move will cost the local economy in Port Talbot more than £10 mn. Under Tata's plan for Port Talbot the site will still be importing steel until late 2027 at the earliest, when it expects its electric arc furnace to be fully operational. But even after that the UK will still need to import the some qualities of steel from abroad.
TV Narendran, CEO and managing director at Tata, called the commissioning of India’s largest blast furnace a “momentous occasion for the steel industry. The commissioning of India’s largest blast furnace at Kalinganagar is a momentous occasion for the steel industry, setting new benchmarks in capacity, technology, and sustainability,” he said.
