Tata Steel has shut down the last remaining blast furnace at Port Talbot, laying the ground for a transition to a less polluting and financially sustainable future in the UK.

Braving the opposition from workers and political parties for almost a year, the Indian company stuck to its plan to end steelmaking operation at the South Wales site on September 30, with the closure of the sinter plant, BF4, along with some secondary steel making and energy systems.

Earlier this year, the company had closed deep water harbour, coke ovens and continuous caster as part of its plan to prepare the site to build an electric arc furnace with 3.2 million tonnes annual capacity. The development on Monday also followed Tata Steel UK signing the grand funding agreement with the Labour government for £500 million. Tata Steel also plan to invest £750 billion as part of the £1.25 capital investment for the EAF which will be operational by 2027/28.

Rajesh Nair, CEO of Tata Steel UK, said, “Today marks a significant event in the history of iron and steelmaking in the UK as the legacy steel making assets in Port Talbot close, having reached their end-of-life.”

Unions described it as an ‘incredibly sad and poignant day’ for the British steel industry and for communities around Port Talbot as the transition is rendering 2,800 workers jobless.

“It’s also a moment of huge frustration — it simply didn’t have to be this way,” Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of Community Union said, pointing out that Tata’s rejection of Union’s alternative plan will be a ‘historic missed opportunity’.

Nair, however, reminded that the low CO2 scrap-based steelmaking, would sustain more than 5,000 jobs across the UK, and also give Tata Steel businesses across the UK a competitive market advantage.