900 jobs are to be axed by Tata Steel across the UK, almost 600 of which will be at plants in Wales.

It is understood most of the Welsh losses will be management and administrative posts in Port Talbot and Llanwern near Newport.

155 jobs in Yorkshire will go, alongside 120 in the West Midlands and 30 on Teesside.

Smaller Tata operations in Crosskeys, Caerphilly county, and one near Tredegar in Blaenau Gwent will close completely.

Shift levels at the company's Rotherham and Hartlepool plants will be reduced to match production to lower demand for bar products and pipelines.

Tata also announced that it would re-start one of two blast furnaces at Port Talbot early next year as part of a £250m investment programme.

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Karl Kohler, chief executive of Tata Steel's European operations, said: "Today's proposals are part of a strategy to transform ourselves into an all-weather steel producer, capable of succeeding in difficult economic conditions.

"These restructuring proposals will help make our business more successful and sustainable, but the job losses are regrettable and I know this will be a difficult and unsettling time for the employees and their families affected.

"We will be working with our trade unions and government at a national and local level to ensure we provide them with as much assistance and support as possible.

"In addition, our subsidiary UK Steel Enterprise will be looking at how it can provide more support to local steel communities and stimulate new jobs following today's announcement.

"We will strengthen this work with a further £650,000 to help them create new jobs in affected areas.

"UK Steel Enterprise has teams in all the affected locations who, for almost four decades, have helped to regenerate local economies and create 70,000 new jobs in the UK.

"We will do everything we can to reduce the impact of the proposals on employees and, where possible, we will look to achieve job losses through voluntary redundancies."

(H)