SOUTH WALES, UK – The Orb Electrical Steels plant in Newport, south Wales, which makes steel for electrical transformers is to shut after 121 years of steelmaking.
Orb Electrical Steels is part of a European subsidiary of the Indian conglomerate Tata and has been up for sale since last year. Buyers were found for two other divisions but not for Orb, reports The Guardian.
Tata will also close a service centre in Wolverhampton.
The company said the closures had nothing to do with Brexit. The key reason is understood to be competition from much larger players in China and Japan.
Upgrading the site to meet customers’ changing demands would have cost £50 million (more than $61 million), Tata said.
“Continuing to fund substantial losses at Orb Electrical Steels is not sustainable at a time when the European steel industry is facing considerable challenges,” said CEO of Tata Steel in Europe, Henrik Adam.
Tata Steel previously owned British Steel before selling it to the investment firm Greybull Capital for £1 in 2016.
Source: The Guardian
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