Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:03 pm on 11 December 2018.
Well, I thank the Member for his comments. We all appreciate how important the steel industry is, of course, across Wales. I well remember in March 2016 the announcements that were made then. I think it's fair to say the future looked very bleak at that point, particularly for the heavy end at Port Talbot. There was a real risk that the heavy end would go, and Shotton, Trostre and the Orb—they seemed to be in a better position because they were fed from Port Talbot. When I went to Shotton, one of the points they made me there was that, 'We're supplied from Port Talbot. If we don't get supplied from Port Talbot, we have six months to find another supplier.' And that was a real issue. Even though Shotton itself was doing well financially, actually, without Port Talbot, it couldn't function properly. And that point was made very, very clear to me at the time. We are in a much better position. We're not out of the woods yet. The steel industry is—the market is always difficult and very dependent on currency fluctuations. But it took a lot of work, working with Tata—and, in fairness, Tata as a company were always open to working with us. I think, if we'd had some businesses from other countries, they wouldn't have spoken to us. But Tata had a sense of social responsibility, which I was impressed with for a company of its size. We were able to work with them to first of all reduce losses then, of course, to chart a course for the future and that work is ongoing. I know how important the Abbey, as we all call it, is to the economy, not just of Port Talbot, but—. In my constituency, Cornelly, most of the village was built to house workers working in the Abbey Works, and it will still remain a hugely important part of Welsh industry and, no matter who is in Government, I've no doubt that support will continue in the future.