On a day Britons voted to end the 14-year-old Conservative rule in the UK and handed the Labour Party a landslide win, Tata Steel closed down one of two blast furnaces in South Wales, continuing with its ongoing restructuring of the loss-making British business.

The closure of the 65-year-old blast furnace, which Tata said had reached the end of its life, did not trigger a fierce response from the unions as workers at the Port Talbot site appeared to be aware of its fate. The Community union described the closure as a ‘sad day for our union and industry’ and hoped that the future of steelmaking would be secured to safeguard jobs.

However, it is the decommissioning of the remaining furnace at the end of September which will be in focus as that would entail thousands of job losses, a position opposed by many Labour leaders, including Stephen Kinnock, who won the Aberafan Maesteg seat that includes Port Talbot, on Friday.

The closure of the BF-5, which began operations in 1959, demonstrated Tata’s resolve to stem £1 million a day loss in the UK operations and follows closure of Morfa coke oven plant, an infrastructure associated with BF operation in March. On Monday, the Unite union had called off the proposed strike from July 8 and decided to return to talks.

Commenting on the decommission of BF-5, Rajesh Nair, CEO of Tata Steel UK, said, “Our challenge is now to focus on a more sustainable and competitive future for our business that will ensure the continuation of steelmaking in the UK for generations to come.”

The company said it would make every effort to mitigate the impact of this transformation on affected employees and the local community. This includes the most favourable financial package of support it has ever offered, and facilities for training and upskilling activities alongside finance for small and medium-sized businesses through the UK Steel Enterprise regeneration and job creation scheme.

Tata Steel had reached an understanding with the outgoing Conservative government, led by Rishi Sunak, to build a less polluting and financially viable electric arc furnace with 3 million tonnes of capacity with an investment of £1.25 billion which includes a £500 million government grant.

However, the grant funding agreement could not be signed before the UK went to the polls.

The Labour party has promised a bigger booty for the UK steel industry but did not spell out a specific plan for Tata Steel’s transformation plan, apart from saying that there is a ‘better deal to do’.

Kinnock had said Labour opposes a plan that uses taxpayers money to make thousands of jobs redundant.

Community’s national officer for steel Alun Davies on Friday reminded that it would work with the Labour Party to deliver the best possible future for Port Talbot.

“We will be working with a Labour government, which has already committed £3 billion to supporting investment in the steel industry.”

Additionally, he said the Union would welcome resumption of discussion of a potential memorandum of understanding which has already delivered significant commitments on future investment for Port Talbot.

However, Tata Steel had reminded on Monday that closure of the remaining blast furnace and reworking of the severance package would not be up for discussion.