Tata Steel announced on Tuesday that it will begin construction of its low-carbon electric arc furnace (EAF)-based steelmaking facility in the UK this month. The project, located at Port Talbot in South Wales, represents an investment of approximately Rs 160 billion (GBP 1.5 billion), with GBP 500 million funded by the UK government.

As outlined in the company’s FY2024–25 annual report, operations at the new EAF plant are expected to commence by the financial year 2027–28. “The work on the EAF project is progressing, with construction at Port Talbot on course to commence this month,” Tata Steel said in a statement.

T V Narendran, CEO & MD, and Koushik Chatterjee, Executive Director & CFO, confirmed that all required approvals for the project have been received. The initiative marks a major transition towards decarbonised, state-of-the-art steelmaking, using locally sourced scrap instead of traditional blast furnace technology.

Tata Steel operates the UK's largest steelworks at Port Talbot with a capacity of 3 million tonnes per annum (MTPA). The company’s upstream operations in the UK have been shut, and it currently services its UK customers using substrates from its facilities in India and the Netherlands.

Steel deliveries from the UK totalled 0.60 million tonnes in the June quarter, down from 0.68 million tonnes in the first quarter of FY2024–25. In India, the Netherlands, and Thailand, production remained steady at 5.26 million tonnes, 1.70 million tonnes, and 0.33 million tonnes, respectively.

Deliveries in April–June FY2025–26 were 4.75 million tonnes from India, 1.50 million tonnes from the Netherlands, and 0.34 million tonnes from Thailand.

The company also noted that maintenance-related shutdowns at Jamshedpur (reline of the G Blast Furnace) and Neelachal Ispat Nigam Limited (NINL) impacted output during the quarter. Operations at NINL have since resumed, while the blast furnace reline at Jamshedpur is expected to be completed by July 2025.