Owens Group will be forced to close its Port Talbot depot with the loss of more than 90 jobs if Tata fails to find a buyer for the town’s steel works, MD Huw Owens has said. Following Tata’s decision to put its entire UK steel business up for sale yesterday, hauliers in and around Port Talbot are assessing the impact of the news on their businesses today. The Port Talbot steelworks, which has been reportedly haemorrhaging £1m a day as it struggles to compete with cheaper steel imports from China, employs more than 4,000 workers. Owens said that: “We are the main haulier for Tata at Port Talbot and handle 95% of the work which accounts for 25% of the group’s turnover. Without a doubt, if Tata decide to close the plant, we will have to close our Port Talbot depot, which will see the best part of 90 staff losing their jobs.” Owens said the company had diversified into the food, parcel delivery and warehousing sectors, to offset the impact of falling volumes in the steel industry, inking a number of deals with major supermarkets and Amazon and building up more than 609,000m² of warehousing across the UK.
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