Tata Steel has announced that it will be cutting 2,800 jobs across the UK, as it shuts down two of the UK's last remaining blast furnaces.

It is part of the company's part of plans to transition to a greener way of making steel.

The two blast furnaces in Port Talbot, south Wales, will close, whilst the company builds electric arc furnaces instead.

Tata said the move will "reverse more than a decade of losses and transition from the legacy blast furnaces to a more sustainable, green steel business".

It added: "The transformation would secure most of Tata Steel UK's existing product capability and maintain the country's self-sufficiency in steelmaking, while also reducing Tata Steel UK's CO2 emissions by five million tonnes per year and overall UK country emissions by about 1.5 per cent."

The shutdown will be done in a phased manner, the company said.

The first blast furnace will close around mid-2024 and then the remaining assets will cease functioning in the second half of the year.

"The course we are putting forward is difficult, but we believe it is the right one," Tata Steel Chief Executive T V Narendran said.

"We must transform at pace to build a sustainable business in the UK for the long-term."

Tala Steel, owned by the Tata group in India, employs more than 8,000 people in the UK.

The electric arc furnaces that will replace the blast furnaces require fewer workers to operate them.