Posted on 09/26/2024 12:08:28 PM PDT by RandFan
The long goodbye to blast furnace no. 4 is nearly over, as Port Talbot stands on the precipice of becoming a ‘steel town’ stripped of its ability to make its own ‘virgin’ steel. It is a huge moment. The sense of imminent – and irreversible – change is everywhere, not least in the wide expanse of the Tata Steel control room where they stand ready to trigger this final, seismic shutdown.
“I started the day after my 16th birthday and I’ve been on the furnaces making iron ever since,” Wade Christensen says. Now 53 years old, he will be part of the team which will oversee a 16-hour process of gradually starving the furnace of all its coke and iron ore – the core materials needed to make molten iron (and then steel).
“That’s two and a half thousand degrees right now,” he points to an array of cameras peering into the searing depths of the furnace. With undisguised pride, he summarises the process which once earned this town the epithet ‘City of Steel’ – and which has underpinned his whole working life.
His voice breaks, briefly, as he adds: “Personally, I’ve been in the company a long time. Three shifts left and that’s it done… after all these years. I can’t help but be sad myself. It’s just the end of a long career, a good career, but it’s coming to an end now, and it’s emotional.”
The arguments to keep open the last of Port Talbot’s colossal blast furnaces have long been exhausted, subsumed now by a chorus of political recriminations. TATA Steel’s Indian owners instead look to a future for Port Talbot based around a different technology: recycling steel out of scrap metal in an electric arc furnace....
(Excerpt) Read more at channel4.com ...
Tell them to enjoy the "New Economy"!
The steel industry is crucial for national security.
We will rue the day we offshored it.
Billionaires destroying the lower middle class. Hardly news these days.
Nobody should be upset. The unemployed workers can be male prostitutes for the islamofascists that rule them. They can also sell their wives and daughters into sexual slavery if things get tight. /s
They keep voting for labor so eff ‘em.
You’re right but it’s an historic thing there i.e their fathers and grandfathers vote Labour so they do.
It’s strange.
Tories weren’t much better.
And they’ll still blame it all on Thatcher.
In this case, Mr. Mittal I believe...
The Indian tentacles in global steel production continues their negative influence. Starting to resent the pajeets as much as the chinese.
It’s an oddity but the best comparison is voters in KY or West Virginia voting Democrat especially locally
Maybe it will change or shift over time...
The Brits need a French Revolution where they execute the aristocracy and they sycophants - every last one that is too stupid to flee abroad.
Japan Steel is close to buying or already bought United States Steel. I HATE what the West has done to slowly commit societal suicide. We are becoming colonies with service economies.
They are going to recycle steel from scrap metal using a new arc furnace. Kinda sounds like an upgrade.
All just part of the Churn. The Churn represents the harsh realities of survival in a world where resources are scarce and violence is ever-present. It highlights the importance of adaptability, resilience, and strength in the face of adversity.
Hey, we can always make "apps" 'n' stuff instead!
Another example of the West “saving the planet” by shutting down its industry. The fact that China/India pick up the work and likely produce far more ‘pollutants’ for the same amount of output is not an issue to the Left.
Things that make no sense.
Democrat governor in KY
Democrat senator in Montana
scrap steel contain contaminants that weaken the final product.
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