PORT Talbot steelworks is facing fresh questions over its future as it heads into 2020, after the chairman of Tata Steel called for the plant to become "self-sustaining".
The biggest steel manufacturing base in the UK made a loss of more than £370m last year, leading Natarajan Chandrasekaran to question whether his parent firm could keep bankrolling the factory.
Speaking to the Sunday Times, Chandrasekaran said: "I need to get to a situation where at least the plant [Port Talbot] is self-sustaining.
"Whether it is in the Netherlands or here, we can't have a situation where India keeps funding the losses just to keep it going."
The statement comes after the company confirmed it would cut 1,000 steel jobs in the UK.
Port Talbot in south Wales produces nearly 5m tonnes of steel slab per year and employs about 4,000 workers, with many more in its supply chain. Employees at the plant have faced uncertainty about their future for several years, after Tata put the factory up for sale in 2016. They enjoyed a brief reprieve, when it was agreed to close the pension fund with the unions until 2022.
Tata, which also owns Jaguar Land Rover, pulls in an annual turnover of roughly £84bn.
(c) 2020 City A.M., source Newspaper
