‘It’s heartbreaking’: gloom in Port Talbot as steel town’s last blast furnace closes

Alun Davies, the national officer of the Community union, with blast furnace 4 in the background. ‘It’s just shocking, I can’t put it into words.’ Photograph: Dimitris Legakis/Athena/Athena Pictures

Alun Davies looks across to the plumes of steam that rise from Port Talbot’s last blast furnace, soon to be extinguished.

The mood in the rainswept south Wales steel town is “heartbreaking”, says Davies, the national officer for the steelworkers’ union Community and a former steelworker of nine years.