TATA STEEL bosses are to close Port Talbot steelworks’ coking ovens tomorrow — in a “betrayal” just days after suggesting they hoped to keep them open, unions charge.

The majority of the south Wales plant’s steelworkers are balloting on strike action which will start before the end of April if, as is likely, workers vote to down tools against compulsory redundancies.

Tata Steel wants to convert the steelworks to use electric arc furnaces instead of the traditional but environmentally damaging coal-fired furnaces.