Britain to provide $621 mln funding for Tata Steel

Britain is to pump 500 million pounds ($621 million) into Tata Steel to help decarbonise its Port Talbot site in Wales, the government said on Friday, but the deal could result in as many 3,000 job losses.

As part of the plan to help secure the future of the Welsh plant, Tata Steel will invest 750 million pounds, with the new funding going towards switching steel production from a coal-powered blast furnaces to the lower-emissions electric arc furnaces.

Britain said in its statement that the government grant, which it called one of the largest government support packages in history, would help safeguard 5,000 jobs.

Tata Steel currently employs over 8,000 people, raising the prospect that there will be as many as 3,000 redundancies as the lower-carbon electric furnaces are less labour intensive.

($1 = 0.8049 pounds)