Future steelmaking in Port Talbot will rely on imports until an electric furnace, which melts scrap steel, is built.
The move has created uncertainty for both those who work at the steelworks and those in other industries.
Adam Beechey, 33, spent five years working at Tata and hopes to find work there in the future, but admitted his is a “job at risk”.
“It’s not nice. When I took this job it was a job for life in my head,” he said.
Mr Beechey – who worked in the heavy end where hot liquid steels is cast into steel blocks – said generations of his family, going back to his great-grandfather, worked in steelmaking there.
“I think I speak for everyone around here in saying it’s worrying times and not just for the people working at Tata – it’s the small businesses,” he said.
One of those businesses is a barbershop owned by Alan Aco that overlooks at the steelworks.
Mr Aco, 42, opened his shop seven years ago and said his customers are on edge about what will happen next.
He said many residents of the town are “depressed”.
“They’ve got bills to pay and it’s not that easy to just find another job,” he said.
