London, Sep 3 : The UK government is in advanced talks with Britain’s biggest steel producer to hand over a £500m aid package aimed at securing the long-term future of steelmaking in South Wales, Sky News reported.
Whitehall officials and Tata Steel are close to agreeing a deal that would commit more than £1bn to the future of its Port Talbot steelworks, but which could ultimately result in thousands of job losses, Sky News reported.
The terms of an agreement were subject to change, but that there were hopes of finalising it as early as this month.
One insider suggested that Tata Steel had been trying to persuade the government to increase the proposed funding package in recent weeks, Sky News reported.
Under the plans currently envisaged, the government would commit approximately £500m of public funding to the company, while Tata Steel’s Indian parent would sign off £700m of capital expenditure over a multi-year period.
Port Talbot employs about 4,000 people – roughly half of Tata Steel’s overall UK workforce of approximately 8,000, Sky News reported.
Industry sources close to the discussions said the company had indicated that over the long term, as many as 3,000 of its British-based staff were likely to lose their jobs.
Electric arc furnaces, which Tata Steel would commit to building as part of the agreement with government, utilise different, less labour-intensive, processes to produce steel than traditional blast furnaces.
The government is said to have accepted during the discussions that some job losses would be inevitable as part of the transition to reducing carbon emissions, although an insider said on Saturday that a number of those could be through workers taking early retirement, Sky News reported.
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