Plaid Cymru’s leader Rhun ap Iorwerth has urged both the UK and Welsh Labour Governments to commit to significant investment in Port Talbot following the closure of TATA Steel’s last blast furnace in September last year.
Mr ap Iorwerth made the comments on a visit to the town in the aftermath of the emergency measures taken in recent days by the UK Government to safeguard the future of British Steel’s Scunthorpe works.
Accompanied by the party’s spokesperson for Economy and Energy Luke Fletcher, he met with residents and former steel workers on Tuesday (15 April) to hear directly from the community how both Governments must now develop a strategy that ensures a future of steelmaking in Port Talbot.
Without a blast furnace what’s the point.
It’s my understanding that all three furnaces are decommissioned at Port Talbot - I imagine it’s cheaper/more economical to recommission existing furnaces than it is to start from scratch.
Government funding could do exactly that, though given they left it to close down in the first place when they had a chance to save it, I doubt they’ll heed Plaid’s call here sadly.
Well, no. That’s rather the issue. Turning off a blast furnace destroys it, as the molten iron inside solidifies into a big mass. To prevent the mass, holes can be bored into the bottom to let it drain. This again destroys the vessel. The furnace then has to cool for several months before it can be dismantled and replaced.
I see, forgive my earlier ignorance then, appreciate the teaching moment.
I suppose my point about earlier calls for help by Plaid is still true though, fuck knows what Labour and the Tories were playing at.
