Today is the 'last day' of the Newport Orb Steelworks after over 100 years of steel making.

The Orb steelworks has a long and proud history in Newport, having opened its gates in 1898. From this point the site expanded rapidly and in its heyday, 3000 people worked at the site.
Steelworkers came to Newport mainly from the Midlands to work at the site, many making the journey by foot.

During the First World War many of the steelworkers from the site enlisted in the military with more than 800 signing up.
By the end of the conflict, 121 Orb workers had been killed. You can find a memorial to these brave steelworkers by the Orb.

For much of the 20th century, the Orb steelworks focused on producing the steel necessary to the production of cars.
In recent times, the site has produced a variety of electrical steels. The Orb was the only steelworks in the country that could've, with a little investment, produced the special steel that is needed in the production of electrical vehicles.
While today there are just 200,000 electric cars on our roads, over the next decade this number is expected to soar as the government plans to ban the purchase of
petrol and diesel cars by 2040.
With this increase in electric vehicles, demand for this special ‘non-oriented steel’ could reach 90,000 tonnes a year by 2030.

Sadly, that steel will now need to be imported.
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