Tata Steel electrical furnace accepted by planners | EUROtoday

Tata Steel’s bid to construct a £1.25bn electrical arc furnace at its Port Talbot steelworks has been given the go-ahead by planners.

Neath Port Talbot planning committee accepted the corporate’s plans to start building in the summertime, with the furnace anticipated to be operational by early 2028.

The EAF will soften largely scrap metal and can substitute each blast furnaces which closed in Port Talbot final yr.

In its planning utility Tata Steel stated it had misplaced £4bn in Port Talbot since 2007 and the brand new furnace would create a “financially and environmentally sustainable” enterprise.

Tata Steel has already appointed contractor Sir Robert McAlpine to ship the challenge, which can contain the demolition of current constructions and partially filling an on-site lagoon.

New buildings to be constructed will embody the furnace complicated, a fume and mud therapy plant and a water therapy facilitiy.

A scrap processing plant may even be required.

The furnace will work by melting largely scrap metal, with different purer varieties additionally being added to be able to obtain specialist grades of the metallic.

Asked concerning the potential affect of US tariffs on metal imports, Tata Steel UK boss Rajesh Nair stated it was a “significant” query and that the corporate was “still watching the space”.

“Ideally we would like to have a level playing field, where everyone plays the game in the right way,” he stated.

The new electrical furnace can have ultra-low emissions if the power provide comes from renewable sources.

Tata Steel stated the equipment producer JCB had dedicated to purchasing “green” metal from the brand new furnace.

The growth will cut back carbon emissions by as much as 90% in contrast with the earlier blast furnace operation in Port Talbot.

Tata Steel had constantly stated it was shedding £1m a day whereas protecting its blast furnaces working.

The closure of the blast furnaces and the remainder of the heavy finish of metal manufacturing in Port Talbot led to round 2,500 job losses in south Wales, with an extra 300 to come back in future.

Many of those that had been made redundant have left the corporate because the final of the blast furnaces closed in September 2024.

Steel mills in Port Talbot are nonetheless in operation, and are treating imported slabs of metal. They will ultimately be equipped with metal produced by the brand new electrical furnace.