Welsh first minister to go to India for Tata talks

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Welsh first minister to go to India for Tata talks

Tata Steel has now drawn its consultation over 2,800 job losses to a close [PA]

The first minister will be in India next week to lobby the bosses of Tata over the future of steel production in Wales.

Vaughan Gething said he will go to Mumbai to press the case for not closing down the blast furnaces at Port Talbot.

He said he would be calling on the company not to have “hard compulsory redundancies”.

Tata Steel has rejected a plan from unions to keep one blast furnace running at the steel plant in Port Talbot while it transitions to greener steel production.

About 2,800 jobs are likely to go across Tata’s UK operations, the bulk of them at Port Talbot – the biggest steel plant in the UK.

It currently employs 4,000 workers at Port Talbot and will begin a voluntary redundancy process in May.

In Wales, the company also has steel processing sites in Llanwern, Shotton, Trostre and Caerphilly.

Speaking in the Senedd, Mr Gething said: “Next week, I plan to go to Mumbai to meet Tata to press the case again not just for the alternative but a clear case that we have continued to make and will continue to make for there to be no hard compulsory redundancies”.

He said he would ask the company to “look again at the opportunities for steel within Wales and Britain, and what it will mean not just for our renewable future but the general future of our economy”.

Tata last week said its decision would secure the future of steel making at the site and the UK government is contributing £500m towards the cost of the project.

Steel unions had condemned the decision and threatened industrial action.

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