By JUDITH NAMUTOWE –
TATA Steel will lay off over 700 workers at its Port Talbot Plant in Wales next week in a bid to restructure, amid a crisis in the British Steel industry.
The company has blamed the move on the influx of cheap imports, particularly from China, and that it will begin consultations with unions immediately.
Steel prices have plummeted in recent years, leading to the European market being flooded with cheap imports from China.
According to a British media report, Tata was cutting 1,050 jobs in total, with 200 support jobs and another 100 roles at its steel mills in Trostre, Corby and Hartlepool all set to be axed.
Workers described the move as a blow and a tragic reminder of the dangerous state of the British steel industry.
The report said the company was expected to announce hundreds of job cuts at its Port Talbot plant in Wales in a statement to the Indian Stock Exchange in Mumbai.
The Indian steel giant has been suffering from plant closures across the United Kingdom (UK) in the face of a crisis gripping the British steel industry.
The Port Talbot unit, which employs around 4,000 workers, was the latest to be hit and a survival plan was expected to be worked out next week.
There has been a mounting concern since the New Year about the future of Tata Steel’s operations in Wales.
Welsh economy minister Edwina Hart said the government would respond appropriately if they received an announcement from the company, adding that Steel had been in a crisis for a long time,  and this was not just a new thing.
Thousands of jobs were lost last year with cutbacks and the closure of steelworks in England and Scotland involving Tata and other UK-based steel companies.
Steel unions have called for urgent action from the UK government to prevent further job losses.
Tata Steel Europe employs 17,000 people in the UK, with 6,360 of those across its plants in Wales.
In October last year, the firm announced that it would cut nearly 1,200 jobs at its plants in Scunthorpe in northern England and at Lanarkshire in Scotland.