UK government, Tata Steel sign £1.25 billion investment deal

The United Kingdom government has agreed for a joint investment package with Tata Steel including a grant worth up to £500 million. On September 18th, it was reported that post the agreement announcement, Tata Steel’s share price reached a 52-week high.

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New Delhi, September 18: The United Kingdom government has agreed for a joint investment package with for the country’s largest steelworks in Wales, including a grant worth up to £500 million. The major announcement came on September 15, has been tagged as one of the largest British government support packages in history and a “defining moment” for the steel industry.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hailed the announcement of a joint investment by his government and Tata Steel to convert the coal-based steel-manufacturing at Port Talbot plant into lower-emission electric arc furnace (EAF). Rishi said that the deal will save thousands of British jobs and secure the future of the steel industry in Wales.

Britain said that the latest deal would help to safeguard 5,000 jobs, Tata Steel UK currently employs more than
8,000 people – raising the prospect of 3,000 redundancies as the lower-carbon electric furnaces are less labour
intensive.

Business and trade minister Kemi Badenoch said the deal was the right thing for Britain and the overall workforce.
“We are saving jobs which would have been lost… without this investment, we would probably have seen the end of
steelmaking certainly in this part of the country,” she said.

Meanwhile, the U.K PM took to X (formerly known as Twitter) last week saying the deal will not only protect jobs, but will modernize production and boost the economy. He believes that the agreement is a testament to the strength of UK’s manufacturing sector.

The company says the project would increase the UK’s steel security and be the first significant step towards the local steel industry’s decarbonization, resulting in a reduction of direct emissions of 50 million tonnes over a ten-year period. With a high degree of circularity, it would make use of domestic scrap steel that is strategically available and encourage local value addition in the UK.