Tata Steel said in a statement on June 4 that a fire broke out on the evening of June 3 in one of its processing lines at the Port Talbot steelworks.
The company said the incident is not related to the recent demolition of its empty, redundant gas holder.
Mid and West Wales Fire Service arrived at the site at 8:00 pm local time to deal with the fire, and Tata said all personnel had been accounted for and evacuated from the area safely. In an update, as of the evening of June 4, the steelmaker said the fire service was still on the site to retain control of the area of the cold mill where the fire occurred.
A company spokesperson said the fire was restricted to a confined area and that despite a pause in the unaffected hot-rolling mill, production was expected to restart promptly.
Tata said in a statement that it was still unable to assess the cause of the fire and its potential impact on operations. The company added that it was “investigating a number of options” to minimize the impact on customers.
The incident comes just weeks before the UK’s new steel safeguard measures come into force, which are set to tighten imports in an attempt to boost domestic production.
“The fire doesn’t look great,” a trader said. “It is seriously bad timing with these quota announcements coming up.”
Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, assessed hot-rolled coil in the UK at GBP705/metric ton DDP West Midlands, up GBP5/mt week over week, and up GBP190/mt since the start of the year.
Photo Credit: Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service
Author: Riley Waters
