Tata Steel has warned that it faces "material uncertainty" in the UK where it operates Britain's biggest steelworks in Port Talbot. The Indian multinational company's European subsidiary put out its annual financial results in which it warned factors including inflation and uncertainty around UK Government support could affect its ability to operate in the UK.
The results show Tata Steel Europe's earnings had fallen by 60% in the last year, the Financial Times reports. Before tax, interest, depreciation, and amortisation the company's European arm – which includes operations in Port Talbot, elsewhere in the UK, and in the Netherlands – reportedly made a loss of £176m in the final quarter of the year.
Tata's worries reportedly include interest and inflation rates and concerns over whether the UK Government's support to decarbonise would be adequate. As a result there is "material uncertainty" in relation to Tata Steel UK's future with the outlook "adversely impacted" by these factors.
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Tata Steel UK and British Steel were both offered sums of £300m in taxpayer money in January to help with this with the Port Talbot plant creating around 5.8m tonnes of carbon emissions per year. Decarbonisation could include carbon capture and storage technology, using the carbon produced to provide power, or to invest in arc furnaces to make steel from recycled steel and powered by renewable sources.
The steelworks in Port Talbot directly employs around 4,000 people comprising half of Tata Steel's UK workforce. In 2022 Tata Group chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran said action to close the company's UK operations could be taken within 12 months without Westminster support.
The Department for Business told the BBC: "We consider the success of the steel sector a priority and will continue to work intensively with the industry to help secure a decarbonised, sustainable, and competitive future." Port Talbot has recently been named as one of Wales' two new freeports as part of the joint Celtic Freeport bid with Milford Haven. Up to £26m of non-repayable starter funding will be provided for these by the UK Government.
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