Tata Steel restarts blast furnace at Port Talbot

First Minister, Mark Drakeford, will visit Tata Steel’s Port Talbot site after the completion of a project to extend the operational life of one of its two blast furnaces.

The company says the life extension project of Blast Furnace 5 cost tens of millions of pounds and is a critical part of its long-term strategy to strengthen its operations in the UK, underpinning improvements throughout its UK supply chain.

Engineers drained the giant furnace in the autumn in order to carry out vital engineering work, extending its life by five to seven years. Following the relighting of the furnace, the first iron has now been produced and turned into a finished steel product before being delivered to a manufacturing business in the UK.