Tata Steel signs 500 million Grant Funding Agreement with UK Govt.

To install state-of-the-art Electric Arc Furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales

Tata Steel announced that it has signed a 500 million Grant Funding Agreement with the UK Government allowing it to proceed at pace with the project to install a state-of-the-art Electric Arc Furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks in Wales.

As the largest investment in the UK steel industry for decades, the 1.25 billion project will safeguard UK's steel sovereignty, secure steel making in Port Talbot and preserve 5,000 jobs.

The new assets will reduce the UK's entire industrial carbon emissions by 8% (and Port Talbot's by 90%) while setting a benchmark in circularity, utilising UK scrap.

Alongside its planned 750 million investment, Tata Steel has put its significant global engineering and project capabilities behind this project, which will benefit from an additional 500 million in UK Government Grant Funding.

Basic engineering is now complete, and equipment orders will be placed shortly for the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and ladle metallurgy furnaces, a new coil box and crop shear for the hot strip mill, a cranes package, and for construction management and civil engineering.

Tata Steel has already launched public consultation on specific activities and is working closely with the authorities to apply for planning approvals by November 2024, with a view to commencing large scale site work around July 2025. The EAF is expected to be operational within three years

Despite the challenges inherent in the transformation, the company's workforce has demonstrated great commitment and resilience to wind down and close the Blast Furnace #5 operations and Morfa coke ovens smoothly and safely in recent months.

Plans are progressing to close Blast Furnace #4 and the wider heavy-end operations at Port Talbot by the end of September, with supply chain arrangements in place to serve customers through the transition period until the EAF is commissioned.

T V Narendran, Tata Steel Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, said: With the UK government's critical support, this complex and ambitious transformation of Port Talbot has the potential to make the plant one of Europe's premier centres for green steelmaking. I would like to thank the UK Steel Committee and various departments of the UK and Welsh governments for their support in reaching this agreement. We now look forward to the efficient and speedy execution of the EAF project. We will also continue our work with the Transition Board and the UK and Welsh governments to enable this project to be a catalyst for economic regeneration and job creation in South Wales.

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