Up to 800mn pounds investment planned in Wales steel plants
Tata Steel Ltd, the world's seventh-largest steel maker, plans to invest up to 800 million pounds in Wales over the next five years, Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones said Monday.
"This substantial investment will be used to improve production, product mix, quality and product range at their plants in Wales," said Jones in a statement following his talks with Tata's vice chairman B Muthuraman during his visit to India last week.
Tata Steel Europe (formerly known as Corus), the region's second largest steel producer after ArcelorMittal, has plants at Port Talbot and Shotton in Wales and employs 7,500 people in the country.
"This is excellent news for our communities and a massive vote of confidence in Wales," said Jones.
Of the total investment the company is planning in its plants in Wales, around 240 million pounds is proposed at the Port Talbot plant, regarded as one of the best steel manufacturers in Europe.
Of this, 185 million pounds is to spent on a new blast furnace and 53 million pounds on upgrades to the steel-making shop.
The investment move comes after the Indian steel maker said in December that it would mothball its Llanwern hot strip mill in Newport, South Wales, due to weak demand for steel and a poor economic outlook.
In the last six months due to hard market conditions, the company has announced several rounds of job losses at Llanwern, in Newport.
In March, workers at the Newport works and Tata's site at Trostre, Llanelli, were invited to take a pay cut and stay at home.
The company said amid a falling demand for steel it was trying to avoid too many retrenchments by offering steelworkers the option to apply for extra time off at half-pay.
"The first objective is to secure the jobs that are already there, and unless the investment is put in, in the short-term, then those jobs are at risk. I would then expect, in the future, for more jobs to be created as Port Talbot expands," said Jones.
Source:The Asia News.Net
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