Tata Steel UK Issues Customer Assurances After Major Fire at Wales Plant
Teams across the business have worked around the clock in recent days to implement mitigation plans and we are making strong progress on contingency arrangements across our UK operations," said Rajesh Nair, CEO of Tata Steel UK
By : PTI
Update: 2026-06-16 01:23 GMT
London: Tata Steel UK on Monday issued assurances that supply chain continuity will be maintained following a major fire at its Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales earlier this month. The company said mitigation measures were implemented rapidly following the fire at the Pickle Line facility to protect downstream operations and customer commitments. Investigations remain underway into the cause of the fire, during which all on-site workers were safely evacuated.
"Teams across the business have worked around the clock in recent days to implement mitigation plans and we are making strong progress on contingency arrangements across our UK operations," said Rajesh Nair, CEO of Tata Steel UK.
"Based on our current assessments, we remain confident in our ability to continue supporting customers and downstream manufacturers during this period and do not currently expect significant market-wide disruption," he said.
"The long-term transformation of Port Talbot remains absolutely central to our future plans and the wider Electric Arc Furnace project continues to progress at pace," he added.
The steel giant said its mitigation measures include increased utilisation of the existing operational Llanwern Pickle Line, plans to restart the Llanwern Cold Mill and support from wider Tata Steel Group supply chain arrangements where appropriate.
The company added: "Current stock levels within both Tata Steel UK and the wider UK supply chain are also considered healthy, providing resilience while mitigation measures are implemented.
"The company continues to work closely with customers across key manufacturing sectors including construction, automotive and wider UK industry.
"Hot Strip Mill operations at Port Talbot have now resumed following planned maintenance activity."
In October 2024, Tata Steel ceased ironmaking at its Port Talbot site and temporarily paused steelmaking pending the construction of a 3.2Mtpa Electric Arc Furnace, due to be commissioned late in 2027 or early 2028.
The Mumbai-headquartered Tata Group expects Tata Steel in the UK would produce net-zero steel by 2045, reducing 30 per cent of its CO2 emissions by 2030.