First minister Vaughan Gething described the news from Tata as “extraordinary” and urged the company to wait for the result of next week’s general election.
In a statement, Mr Gething said: “The news that Tata could switch off Blast Furnaces 4 and 5 at Port Talbot next week is extraordinary and will cause huge anxiety for the workforce, their families and the community.
“The Welsh government cannot and will not support the closure of both blast furnaces”.
He added that acting whilst the nation went to the polls did not help de-escalate matters.
Samuel Kurtz, the Welsh Conservative shadow minister for economy and energy said it was “disappointing news that will cause additional distress to communities already dealing with enough as it is”.
“Tata have shown no goodwill to their workforce at what is an anxious time.
“The Welsh Labour government have also only paid lip service to Tata’s workforce, failing to contribute a penny to the transition board, and UK Labour’s manifesto says nothing on what it would do differently to support Port Talbot’s steelworkers,” he added.
Luke Fletcher, Plaid Cymru’s economy spokesperson, said steel should be brought under the control of the next UK government, which Plaid believes will be led by Sir Keir Starmer.
Mr Fletcher said: “The time has come now for an incoming Labour government to put words into action on steel.
“Save our steel is no good as just a slogan, if we are going to save our steel, nationalisation needs to happen on day one.”
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