Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:18 pm on 18 September 2019.
Thank you for the question. As I say, we have been in close discussions with the company and with the trade unions. My colleague Ken Skates spoke to the company immediately on the news breaking and officials have since been to the local plant to meet with the team there. We are reassured that the existing workforce will be fully redeployed, as we understand it, within Tata—that no worker that wants to continue working will be left without an opportunity—which is of some comfort, though, of course, it's a matter of deep regret that the facility has been lost to Newport and to the Welsh manufacturing sector.
This, obviously, is a decision for Tata. We have supported Tata with a considerable amount of money. Were it not for the intervention of the Welsh Government, Tata would no longer be manufacturing steel in the UK at all, certainly if left to the UK Government, which offered a lot of words but no action in the light of the steel crisis back in 2016. So, I think we have a strong record of intervening to make sure that steel production remained in Wales. Of course, the Orb site has been for sale since May 2018. The company tell us that it's been running at a loss and they've been unable to find a viable way forward for the plant. It's not correct to say that the steel made in Orb is used for electric vehicles, as some media have reported. That sort of steel is made by Tata in its Swedish plant, but it's not made in Orb, and in order to rekit the factory to produce that steel, it would need a considerable investment that Tata simply did not think was justifiable, given the state of the market, given the uncertainty of trading conditions, and given, also, the uncertainty in the market for electric vehicles—whether the demand simply isn't there at the moment and may not be there for some time. So, this is ultimately a decision for Tata. They themselves, who are a profit-making company, cannot find a way of making a profit from further investment in this plant. We are working with them to try and make sure that the existing workforce have as prosperous a future as could possibly be managed, but we continue to work with John Griffiths as the Assembly Member, and the local council, and the trade unions, to see if there is an alternative available to keep some manufacturing in the facility. There is a role for the UK Government here to step in and take a strategic view. We've been calling on them to come forward with a sector deal for the steel sector. The trade unions and UK Steel have been issuing similar calls and they have simply not stepped up to the mark. So, in terms of the longer term prospects of the industry in the UK, the UK Government needs to do far more to make sure it has a viable future.