Tata says Port Talbot may close without £1.5 billion from UK govt: Report

  Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Tata Group chairman, said the firm had been in talks with the government for two years over funding for Tata’s transition to greener steel production.

Indian steel giant Tata Steel Ltd. may close sites including Port Talbot unless it receives £1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) in support from the UK government, the Financial Times reported.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Tata Group chairman, said the firm had been in talks with the government for two years over funding for Tata’s transition to greener steel production.

“We should come to an agreement within 12 months. Without this, we will have to look at closures of sites,” Chandrasekaran told the newspaper.

Port Talbot is the UK’s biggest steelworks and employs some 4,000 people.

The steelworkers’ union Community said Tata’s comments were “shocking” and had been made without consultation with unions.

“For months we’ve been in discussions with the company, but we should be clear there is no agreement on the decarbonisation roadmap,” a Community spokesperson said in a statement.

Allies of UK business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng say he wants to help steelmakers, including Tata, decarbonise the industry, but believes future subsidy decisions must be taken by a new Conservative leader and prime minister, according to the Financial Times.

Tata Steel’s quarterly profit from January to March jumped 47% as demand for the alloy boomed, the firm said in May. The company announced a stock split amid a sharp run-up in its share price.