Tata could make Port Talbot decision within a week

The future of the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales was hanging in the balance on Monday, with speculation that the board of Tata Steel could decide to close some, or all of its operations within a week.

Sky News reported that a meeting of the company’s board was due to take place in India on 29 March, and cited unnamed sources as fearing the worst.

It was understood Tata’s board was initially goinh to be presented with a rescue plan which could turn the plant’s fortunes around in two years, to a £100m annual profit from the current £200m annual loss.

That plan would have involved £100m of investment from Tata Steel.

The source told Sky that it now believed a much more difficult plan was being presented, leading to speculation it would be rejected and any hopes for investment quashed.

Tata had already cut thousands of steel jobs from its UK operations in the last six months. In October, 1,200 workers at the Scunthorpe and Lanarkshire plants were told their employment could no longer be justified.

And in January, Tata axed 726 jobs from Port Talbot as steel prices and demand collapsed, making the product less viable to manufacture in Britain.

Around 4,000 people were believed to be under Tata’s direct employment at Port Talbot at present, with as many as 3,500 contractors also working at the site.