By Free Republic | Created at 2024-09-26 19:25:46 | Updated at 2024-10-01 04:24:15
4 days ago
Port Talbot [Wales] braces for closure of historic blast furnace
Channel 4 News ^ | 26 Sep | Andy Davies
Posted on 09/26/2024 12:08:28 PM PDT by RandFan
The long goodbye to blast furnace no. 4 is nearly over, as Port Talbot stands on the precipice of becoming a ‘steel town’ stripped of its ability to make its own ‘virgin’ steel. It is a huge moment. The sense of imminent – and irreversible – change is everywhere, not least in the wide expanse of the Tata Steel control room where they stand ready to trigger this final, seismic shutdown.
“I started the day after my 16th birthday and I’ve been on the furnaces making iron ever since,” Wade Christensen says. Now 53 years old, he will be part of the team which will oversee a 16-hour process of gradually starving the furnace of all its coke and iron ore – the core materials needed to make molten iron (and then steel).
“That’s two and a half thousand degrees right now,” he points to an array of cameras peering into the searing depths of the furnace. With undisguised pride, he summarises the process which once earned this town the epithet ‘City of Steel’ – and which has underpinned his whole working life.
His voice breaks, briefly, as he adds: “Personally, I’ve been in the company a long time. Three shifts left and that’s it done… after all these years. I can’t help but be sad myself. It’s just the end of a long career, a good career, but it’s coming to an end now, and it’s emotional.”
The arguments to keep open the last of Port Talbot’s colossal blast furnaces have long been exhausted, subsumed now by a chorus of political recriminations. TATA Steel’s Indian owners instead look to a future for Port Talbot based around a different technology: recycling steel out of scrap metal in an electric arc furnace....
(Excerpt) Read more at channel4.com ...
TOPICS: Business/Economy; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
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Not often you see Welsh news posted on FR but 10,000 jobs and livelihoods GONE and entire community seemingly devastated ...
Tell them to enjoy the "New Economy"!
1 posted on 09/26/2024 12:08:28 PM PDT by RandFan
To: RandFan
The steel industry is crucial for national security.
We will rue the day we offshored it.
2 posted on 09/26/2024 12:10:04 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: RandFan
Billionaires destroying the lower middle class. Hardly news these days.
3 posted on 09/26/2024 12:11:47 PM PDT by PAR35
To: RandFan
Interlude. (please ignore the cackle ad).
4 posted on 09/26/2024 12:12:01 PM PDT by xoxox
To: RandFan
Nobody should be upset. The unemployed workers can be male prostitutes for the islamofascists that rule them. They can also sell their wives and daughters into sexual slavery if things get tight. /s
5 posted on 09/26/2024 12:12:32 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
To: RandFan
They keep voting for labor so eff ‘em.
6 posted on 09/26/2024 12:13:15 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
To: wildcard_redneck
You’re right but it’s an historic thing there i.e their fathers and grandfathers vote Labour so they do.
It’s strange.
7 posted on 09/26/2024 12:14:23 PM PDT by RandFan
To: wildcard_redneck
Tories weren’t much better.
8 posted on 09/26/2024 12:14:36 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: RandFan
And they’ll still blame it all on Thatcher.
9 posted on 09/26/2024 12:15:26 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
To: PAR35
In this case, Mr. Mittal I believe...
10 posted on 09/26/2024 12:15:26 PM PDT by RandFan
To: RandFan
The Indian tentacles in global steel production continues their negative influence. Starting to resent the pajeets as much as the chinese.
11 posted on 09/26/2024 12:17:49 PM PDT by CletusVanDamme (You always said you'd take care of me, George. Here's one rap you won't beat.)
To: dfwgator
It’s an oddity but the best comparison is voters in KY or West Virginia voting Democrat especially locally
Maybe it will change or shift over time...
12 posted on 09/26/2024 12:18:48 PM PDT by RandFan
To: dfwgator
The Brits need a French Revolution where they execute the aristocracy and they sycophants - every last one that is too stupid to flee abroad.
13 posted on 09/26/2024 12:19:51 PM PDT by wildcard_redneck (He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.)
To: RandFan
Japan Steel is close to buying or already bought United States Steel. I HATE what the West has done to slowly commit societal suicide. We are becoming colonies with service economies.
14 posted on 09/26/2024 12:25:30 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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