Some 15,000 jobs in the UK could be at risk after Indian conglomerate giant Tata Steel unveiled plans to sell its entire UK business. The decision is understood to have been made at a board meeting in Mumbai on 29 March, after Union leaders who had traveled to India failed to convince the firm to commit to a turnaround plan.
However, the UK government said it remained determined to do anything it could to find a solution to the ongoing crisis, which could jeopardise 4,000 jobs in the Port Talbot plant alone.
We are, and have, and continue to look at, all options and I do mean all options, UK business minister Anna Soubry said. But what we first want to achieve from Tata is this period of time to allow a proper sale process.
Heres Tata Steels impact on the British steel industry in numbers.
£1m - Daily loss Tata faces to keep running the Port Talbot site.
£2bn - The amount of money Tata claims to have lost in UK steel plants.
£4.3bn - Paid by Tata to takeover Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in 2007, which had acquired British Steel in 1999. Having absorbed the The Steel Company of Wales in 1967, British Steel was then privatised in 1988.
4.19m - Tonnes of hot metal produced at Port Talbot in 2015.
£13bn - Tatas debt in late 2014.
£68m - Tatas quarterly loss in the three months to February 2016.
£200m - Port Talbot operations yearly contribution to the economy in salaries alone.
£300m - The amount Corus received for the sale of Teesside Cast Products plant from Thai steel producer SSI.
1,000 - In January 2016 the company said it would cut 1,000 UK jobs, including 750 at Port Talbot.
1,200 - In October 2015 Tata said 1,200 jobs at its Lanarkshire and Scunthorpe plants would go.
2007 - Year Tata began operating in the UK after buying Corus, which was rebranded to the group name of Tata Steel Europe in 2010.
3,000 - Workers employed at Port Talbots sister plant in Llanwern and at Shotton and Trostre.
4,000 - The number of steelworkers employed at Tatas Port Talbot plant.
15,000 - The number of employees currently working for Tatas UK division.
18,000 - The number of employees at the Abbey Works site in Port Talbot – which currently hosts Tatas operations – in the 1960s. It was Europes largest steelworks and the largest single employer in Wales.
250,000 - Workers the UK steel industry employed at its peak.
£500,000 - The amount Tata was fined in 2012 for the 2006 death of worker Kevin Downey at its Port Talbot plant.