Port Talbot: What next?

At the Vatican, when one Papal reign comes to an end and a new one is about to begin, all eyes are focused on the chimney above the Sistine chapel waiting for black smoke to turn grey.

And so it was at Port Talbot earlier this week, when onlookers and a media throng stood and watched for the last plume of steam to emit from blast furnace no.4 to signal the end of an epoch. What no one is sure about, is what precisely will come next.

The waiting crowd were watching the book closing on a tradition of virgin steelmaking that can trace its origins back to the industrial revolution.

Blast furnace No.4 was in fact the last of five that were once in production at Port Talbot, Britain’s largest remaining steelworks. The other four have already gone.

In truth, this was always going to be the outcome. The whole operation had become too costly and too inefficient. The writing was on the wall years ago.

The company, the government and the unions knew it.

The Unions hoped that more than 2,000 jobs could be saved with a staggered transition to the future –while an electric arc furnace that is cleaner and less damaging to the environment is built. 

But with losses of £1m a day, TATA could wait no longer and signalled the end earlier this year.

Labour Ministers, say they have been able to secure better redundancy terms for the workers who will lose their jobs. But if any politician hoped that the closure could be avoided or delayed, they were misguided.

So, what now?

The last government, working alongside the Welsh government, set up a Port Talbot transition board when it became clear that closure was probable. It’s aim, with £100m of financial support for the area, is to mitigate the impact of closure while the new electric arc furnace is built. But that could take at least three years. And when it is built, it will employ far fewer than the energy and labour-intensive blast furnace operation that shut down this week. But that’s not the end of the story.

Port Talbot, and Milford Haven, in Pembrokeshire, have been jointly designated as the ‘Celtic Freeport’ which, it is hoped will forge new opportunities with a particular emphasis on renewable energy production and the servicing of offshore windfarms.

https://www.celticfreeport.wales The dash for green is at the heart of the policy for renewal and change. Industries around this sector, are central to government thinking – and the UK and Welsh governments, both now working closer under Labour control, share a common vision. A cleaner productive Wales where innovation that harnesses natural resources through ecologically sound practice will herald a brighter future.

It’s a laudable vision and large sums of are being set aside to buy into it. But that’s to come. Precisely when, isn’t clear. Within the next decade if all goes well. But there is still a lot to do to take the vision off the page and turn it into reality. It can’t come soon enough for the younger workers at Port Talbot who like their forefathers have invested their hopes in steel. Now they must walk a different path…and hope for better times ahead.