UK Provides $17.3 Million To Protect Tata Steel’s Port Talbot Workers

Britain will grant 13.5 million pounds ($17.31 million) in funding to support Tata Steel’s workers and supply chain businesses at Port Talbot in South Wales facing job losses, the government said on Thursday.

Workers suspended a planned all-out strike after Britain’s biggest steel producer warned that it would bring forward the planned closure of its two blast furnaces at Port Talbot if the walkouts went ahead. The closure would cut up to 2,800 jobs.

“Negotiations with Tata Steel on the future of the site will continue separately. But this government will not wait for a crisis to overtake us before acting,” Welsh Secretary Jo Stevens said in a statement.

The closures were announced in January as part of the Indian company’s plan to turn around its loss-making UK business by switching to lower carbon electric arc furnaces, a proposal backed by 500 million pounds ($632 million) of government money.

(Reporting by Disha Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul)