Challenges facing the steel industry in Wales

Business Correspondent Carole Green

From Port Talbot, Llanwern, Llanelli in the south, Ebbw Vale in the Valleys to Shotton in the north, for over a century steel has shaped the way we live.

It goes into everything from our cars to our tin cans and it's a foundation industry for the welsh economy which has forged our communities.

But steel is in crisis, as the Redcar plant closes for good in Scunthorpe, mills here in Wales are also being moth balled.

Young men like Alex Williams who should be the future of the industry are being laid off:

Read more: Tata Steel job losses 'devastating' for community

The new dad is one of 250 agency workers who'll lose their jobs at Llanwern steel works in Newport at the end of the month.

Another 120 staff will redeploy to Port Talbot with only the 'Zodiac' line continuing to galvanising steel for the car industry.

Llanwern is now Tata's so called "flex plant".The mills coming on and off line depending on market conditions.

But the dynamics of that market are stacked up against steel made in Wales right now. Thousands of tonnes of cheap steel are coming in every week, from Russia, Turkey and from China .

Add to that the strong pound hitting our own steel exports and rising costs, particularly energy means steel is on the edge.

Steel unions and steel companies are united and calling on the UK government to urgently address the price of electricity for high users.

Andrew Gutteridge from the Community Union says the tariffs need to be addressed immediately:

Tata Steel says it has to reduce costs to be competitive and it's invested heavily in Wales in the last five years, waiting for the economy to pick up.

Industry watchers say the Welsh steel sector will have to keep innovating and developing new products to survive.

Watch Carole Green's full report here: