Tata Steel has signed a £500 million Grant Funding Agreement with the UK Government to advance its ambitious £1.25 billion green steel project at Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, in a significant boost to the British industry.

The agreement marks the largest investment in the UK steel sector in decades, setting the stage for the installation of a state-of-the-art Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) and also saving 5,000 jobs, the company said in a media release on Wednesday.

Britain’s biggest steel producer, Tata, in July began the process of closing down one of its carbon-intensive blast furnaces, with the shutdown of its other furnace slated for September.

(More to come)