Driving past the steelworks in Port Talbot , it's not unusual to see thick clouds hovering above.
Sometimes those clouds are hidden by the weather.
But occasionally, they are very visible, and sometimes, they take on an orange hue.
We asked Tata to explain the cause and this is what it had to say:
The cloud over the steelworks:
It explained it was a result of 'slopping' which occasionally happened at the Basic Oxygen Steelmaking plant.
Slopping is when some of the ‘slag foam’ escapes from the top of the steel making vessel.
Tata, which is Europe's second largest steel producer, stated it had worked hard to reduce the number of such incidents, which it admitted were 'unsightly', but added that it did not have any impact on the surrounding community.
A Tata Steel spokesman said: “We have done a lot of work to minimise the number of these incidents and continue to make improvements.
“While theses intermittent incidents can be unsightly they do not lead to any impact on the local community as any material falls straight back onto our site.”
Tata recently revealed it planned to explore new joint venture opportunities for its European steel business, which includes its primary plant in south Wales.
It comes after the Indian-owned business earlier this month confirmed it had walked away from a proposed merger of its European steel operations with that of German conglomerate Thyssenkrupp.
Last June, subject to European Commission regulatory approval, both companies agreed to create a new entity employing 48,000 across the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.
While the EC has yet to formally give its verdict on the merger, Tata Steel said it had walked away from the 50-50 partnership because remedies demanded by the competition regulator went beyond the ‘logic’ of the deal agreed with Thyssenkrupp.
