¡¾Ferro-alloys.com¡¿:Indian steelmaker Tata Steel Limited will proceed with its £1.25 billion investment to build an electric arc furnace at Port Talbot in Wales, UK, replacing two blast furnaces, and will commence the closure of the existing heavy end assets in the following months, the company said in a statement on Friday,April 26.

The trade unions have been informed that Port Talbot's two blast furnaces Nos. 5 and 4 will close by the end of June and by the end of September,respectively. This is in contrary to the union's plan which would have kept one blast furnace in operation during the construction of an electric arc furnace.

However, the steelmaker pointed out that the alternative plan presented by the union would involve additional costs of at least £1.6 billion and that building a new electric arc furnace while continuing to operate the existing steel melting shop is high-risk and complex and would delay the transition by two years.

"Having looked carefully at all the options over the past seven months in consultation with union representatives, we have decided to proceed with our proposed restructuring and transition. This is the most viable proposal, in contrast to the unions' unaffordable plan which has a high inherent operational and safety risk," Tata Steel's CEO and managing director,T V Narendran, said.

• [Editor:Alakay]