Alcoa closes Point Hay

[cheap]

I guess the CO2 tax supporters will be overjoyed as another evil pollution industry is removed from Australia

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/busi...-1226830195047

Alcoa closures of Point Henry smelter, two mills leave 1000 out of work


Alcoa has announced it will permanently close its Point Henry aluminium smelter at Geelong in August.


ALCOA will close its Point Henry aluminium smelter and two rolling mills, leaving almost 1000 people out of work, in the “darkest day” since the closure of the Newcastle steelworks.

The Point Henry smelter will close in August, throwing 500 workers at the Geelong plant out of jobs.

An adjacent rolling mill and a second mill at Yennora, NSW, will add to the sense of gloom engulfing Australian manufacturing. The two mills employ about 480 people.

Following last week’s shock announcement by Toyota that it would end car production in 2017 — effectively ending car making in Australia — Alcoa this morning informed the New York Stock Exchange that the 40-year-old Point Henry smelter had no prospect of becoming financially viable.

The plant has been under review by the company since February 2012. A federal and state government assistance package extended the life of the smelter till this year.

“We recognise how deeply this decision impacts employees at the affected facilities and are committed to supporting them through this transition,” Alcoa chairman and chief executive Klaus Kleinfeld said.

“Despite the hard work of the local teams, these assets are no longer competitive and are not financially sustainable today or into the future.”

Treasurer Joe Hockey said he felt for the workers who had lost their jobs but “this is one of a number of businesses that will pass, many other businesses will open”.

Mr Hockey also slammed the assistance package provided to Alcoa by the previous government.

“That’s another example where Labor just handed out taxpayers money,” he said.

“Two years later, the smelter closes, $40 million of taxpayers money down the tube.’’

He said there was “no silver bullet here to rebirth businesses like Alcoa, Toyota or Holden”.

“But the government can put in place the right settings — less tax, less regulation, greater expansion opportunities overseas.

“These things are the things that are going to create the jobs of today and tomorrow, not by trying to resuscitate businesses that have decided to leave.’’

Australian Workers’ Union leader Paul Howes has declared the Abbott Government cannot be blamed for Alcoa’ announcement today that it was cutting 980 jobs.

“This is not the fault of the Government,’’ Mr Howes said. “There is nothing the government could have done to stop this announcement today.’’

He blamed lower aluminium prices and the high Australian dollar for what he said was the “darkest day in base metal production” in the country since the closure of the Newcastle steelworks in 1997.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the Alcoa announcement was devastating for workers and their families.

“It is very saddening news for families in Geelong,’’ he said.

“This city has been among the hardest hit by job losses in the car manufacturing industry — today’s announcement will cut deep.”

He said the global oversupply of aluminium, dramatically falling aluminium prices and a high Australian dollar had made the continuation of the operations impossible.

“The Abbott Government must provide adjustment packages for these regions and a transition assistance for these workers,” he said.

“Labor stands ready to work with the government to ensure this happens as soon as possible.

“There will be families in Geelong and Western Sydney today wondering what is next for them — our immediate focus has to be on supporting these workers.

“We need a plan for these workers, just like we need a jobs plan for the tens of thousands of car industry workers and others who are losing their jobs.’’

ACTU Secretary Dave Oliver said the Abbott Government “needs to abandon its empty rhetoric and tell Australians where the new jobs are going to come from”.

“Every day workers in this country are confronted with more job losses, more jobs going offshore and continued inaction from the Abbott Government.

“In the last few weeks alone we’ve seen Toyota announce its closure and signal the end of local auto manufacturing and with it 50,000 jobs, 1500 jobs have gone at the Forge Group, Ford announced it will pull out of Australia earlier than expected and Mr Abbott stood by and did nothing to protect 3000 jobs at SPC Ardmona in Shepparton.

“This is all at the same time as Australia’s unemployment rate has reached 6 per cent — the highest it’s been in over a decade.

“The Abbott Government needs to wake up to the fact that being in Government means cheap rhetoric and the blame game isn’t good enough — they need to step up and take responsibility for creating jobs in this country.

“We know Australians are struggling with the cost of living and worried about job security but they’re getting cold comfort from a Federal Government that has made clear it won’t stand up for working people.”

AWU Victorian branch secretary Ben Davis said workers had done all they could to improve efficiency at the sites.

“They have co-operated and implemented productivity improvements and workplace change whenever it was asked of them,” Mr Davis said. “Their reward for all that blood, sweat and tears is to lose their jobs. It is a shameful announcement.” Mr Davis said the closure heaped pain on a region still reeling from recent job shedding at Ford, Target and Boral.

“The Geelong community needs to be reassured that manufacturing has a future here and they urgently need government help through this series of catastrophes,” he said.

“The Geelong region is in crisis. We need a jobs plan now.”

Alcoa Australia chief executive Alan Cransberg is this morning informing workers at the smelter of the decision.

Alcoa said a ‘’comprehensive review found that the 50-year-old smelter has no prospect of becoming financially viable’’.

It said the two rolling mills served the domestic and Asian can sheet markets which have been impacted by excess capacity.

“These are hard decisions to make,” Mr Cransberg said. “We understand how difficult this is for our employees and their families, our contractors, suppliers and community partners.

‘’Everyone has worked hard to improve the competitiveness of the smelter and rolling business. ‘’They are part of a proud history of Alcoa in Australia over the last 50 years and part of the significant contributions we have made to the Australian economy and local communities. We appreciate the ongoing support of the Australian and Victorian governments and will continue to work closely with all levels of government, our employees, unions and community stakeholders to manage through these changes.”

[SB076]

The sooner all parties stop blaming each other and start working on solutions the sooner we can begin to save industry.

Had a long discussion with someone who believes strongly in all things environmental and isn't big on industry being in Australia. I advised him it is far better the have industry here, where you can control some of the environmental impacts that move it abroad to countries that don't have the same environmental standards we do. Then went on to advise him just how many tonnes of bunker fuel ships burn to bring goods from overseas.

[Trump]

No one that wields real power is interested in saving Australian industry.

[XWGT]

No surprises there

Note the statement about excess capacity in mills in Australia and Asia.

[Charliewool]

Alcoa uses almost a QUARTER (18-25%) of Victoria's power...
So.. our electricity price will now tumble.. Won't it??
That's also a 25% decrease in greenhouse emissions..
Combine that 25% decrease with Ford, GMH, Toyota, and Shell ceasing.
We'll have cleaner air than living in bloody Antarctica! (and about the same prospect of employment as there!!)
What a ripper the Carbon tax turned out to be!.. All hail Jules!

[robertjp]

Do ypu really think thst electricity prices will drop when the carbon tax is repealled? Dont be so naive!

[Road_Warrior]

Originally Posted by robertjp

Do ypu really think thst electricity prices will drop when the carbon tax is repealled? Dont be so naive!

Dude, you know that thing called sarcasm, right?

[Bossxr8]

Just what this town needs, more unemployed.

[Franco Cozzo]

Its alright man, what you do is meet some bird in Corio, have 75 kids, rock into Centrelink with a needle in your arm and they'll roll out the red carpet for you, some guy will come out with a silver platter, with a gold card on it with "Centrelink V.I.P" on it and she'll be gravy.

Geelong will be a ghetto in the next few years, a nice ghetto, on the beach. I reckon the crime rate will skyrocket with all these people unable to support families.

[Charliewool]

"Cotton on" Bossxr8... Get yaself a cheap sewing machine..

[Bossxr8]

Last I heard they were getting children in Bangladesh to do that lol.

[Charliewool]

5c a shirt, 15 hr day and free rice...
Geelong will be booming! zero unemployment..
Seriously though, the future is a huge concern..
Heard your esteemed mayor talking about Geelong's future today and was pretty impressed.
The guy is articulate, seems genuinely concerned and really passionate about the place!
Not your usual beaurocratic waffling govco dh.

[buggerlugs]

I think the local real estate agents in Geelong will be earning their keep..........

[GASWAGON]

Bloody hell it just keeps getting worse and worse all this bad news lately.......And most of it is caused by the stupid carbon tax!

[ILLaViTaR]

Excellent. One less regressive autism/automimmune illness trigger for glutathione deprived individuals. Find a less destructive profession.

Money doesn't come before health. That's why we got rid of asbestos remember.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by EF_6

Bloody hell it just keeps getting worse and worse all this bad news lately.......And most of it is caused by the stupid carbon tax!

Careful, logical comments will cause uproar, bring out the denials with the aim to have the thread locked.

Zero gain and TOTAL pain

[cheap]

Originally Posted by ILLaViTaR

Excellent. One less regressive autism/automimmune illness trigger for glutathione deprived individuals. Find a less destructive profession.

Money doesn't come before health. That's why we got rid of asbestos remember.

There probably are health issues associated with the smelter, but those issues have now relocated overseas to countries with next to no pollution controls in place. Wouldn't it be better to have the industry still in Australia and complying to appropriate pollution rules and regulations?

In the pursuit of "clean" are we really going to throw out every industry?

[EDManual]

The thing is at alcoa everyones pretty much "rich", they'll all get their massive payouts, and many will not ever have to work again.
The younger family guys probably live to their high wages though so may have to downsize their houses. I know of a few who are just waiting to retire...and are quite young too! (40's)

But yeah, lots of electricity used by Alcoa, Ford, Holden, Toyota will give lots of capacity but the electricity companies will want EXACTLY the same total amount of revenue to cover their costs, so our bills will what DOUBLE!? Great...
What will happen is the supply costs to us will go up, so even if we use less we still get charged more. Same happened with water during the drought, we used less, but they still wanted the same money, so the supply charges went up to cover it.

[ILLaViTaR]

Originally Posted by cheap

There probably are health issues associated with the smelter, but those issues have now relocated overseas to countries with next to no pollution controls in place. Wouldn't it be better to have the industry still in Australia and complying to appropriate pollution rules and regulations?

In the pursuit of "clean" are we really going to throw out every industry?

Probably would be better here but the bottom line is they all need to go or at least drastically reduce their impact which will never happen! But i'll take a thousand carbon plants before one that smelts aluminum, lead, arsenic, cadmium or tin. Even Fukishama in it's current state but of course the public consensus is that's far worse/scary than particular metals.

[Charliewool]

"Rich" eh??
A scenario.. A 45 yr old, worked at Alcoa (OR Ford OR any of the other major players closing) for 25 yrs....
Assumming wage of say.. 90k per annum, married, 2 kids at secondary school, 40% through a 350k mortgage.. How much does he get in his redundancy package?
My guess would be, maybe 200-230k?
Ok, a fair whack in one bite.. But that 200 odd won't even be remembered 5 or 6 yrs down the track because it'll be bloody GONE..
Meanwhile, the ONLY job "Joe Blow" has ever had was making ally at Alcoa or cars at Ford.. and is virtually unemployable after he's gone through his "rich" payout and turned 52-53!!
Do tell how "rich" he is for the next 30 years of his life??

[ILLaViTaR]

Don't mean to sound unsympathetic but is 1000 jobs really a big deal (from a logistical perspective)? That's hardly anymore employees than a handful of small businesses that silently go bankrupt every day.

I'm sure they also got plenty of notice to find new jobs just like the ford employees have had for the last 7 years. Unlike the thousands of non secure casual workers in retail who spontaneously lose their lively hood (which no one seems to give a stuff about). Hard to care as much when they have it nowhere near as bad as most.

[cheap]

Originally Posted by ILLaViTaR

Don't mean to sound unsympathetic but is 1000 jobs really a big deal (from a logistical perspective)? That's hardly anymore employees than a handful of small businesses that silently go bankrupt every day.

I'm sure they also got plenty of notice to find new jobs just like the ford employees have had for the last 7 years. Unlike the thousands of non secure casual workers in retail who spontaneously lose their lively hood (which no one seems to give a stuff about). Hard to care as much when they have it nowhere near as bad as most.

Every job lost hurts because many of these people will not find work. A decade ago BHP pulled the pin on steel making in Newcastle - we have row upon row of shops closed in downtown Newcastle- thank goodness there is coal mining because without coal Newcastle as a city would be gone. What does Geelong have to fall back on?

It may take months, years even a decade for the consequences of thousands of jobs going at Alcoa, Toyota, Ford and GMH, the long term consequences will be very bad for Australia since we do not have any of these hypothetical new wave jobs to take up the "old" school workers.

Think of a permanent generation of unemployed people sitting on welfare because that's where we're at. The social, health and financial drag upon Australia is being felt by everyone. Sure the CO2 tax wasn't the only cause but it did exacerbate an already bad situation.

But heck, as long as the CO2 zealots are happy that's all that maters.

[PepeLePew]

I grew up in Geelong. Almost everyone I knew had someone in the family working in Ford Alcoa or Shell. Sad times for a town which had come so far from what I grew up in. I hardly recognized half the place when I went back last.

[Bowser22]

Nice to see all the union "hanger-oners" crowding around during the press conferences across the road.

[Geez Louise]

Originally Posted by ILLaViTaR

Don't mean to sound unsympathetic but is 1000 jobs really a big deal (from a logistical perspective)? That's hardly anymore employees than a handful of small businesses that silently go bankrupt every day.

I'm sure they also got plenty of notice to find new jobs just like the ford employees have had for the last 7 years. Unlike the thousands of non secure casual workers in retail who spontaneously lose their lively hood (which no one seems to give a stuff about). Hard to care as much when they have it nowhere near as bad as most.

For every one job lost, there a least another 4 that are affected. People won't have as much money, so won't spend as much, which has a roll on effect to industries/companies in the community.

It will have a massive effect on Geelong and Victoria..things are only going to get worse before they get better.

Cheers
Col

[zilo]

Someone please show me where Alcoa management have said that the CARBON TAX has had anything whatsoever to do with the plant closure?

Go ahead....make my day?

[nuthin' fancy]

The workforce is much smaller than it was.

For anyone thinking of coming to Geelong (easy commute to Melbourne) there will be heaps of houses in Leopold competing for buyers.

What I want to know is what will happen to the site at Point Henry?

[nuthin' fancy]

Originally Posted by zilo

Someone please show me where Alcoa management have said that the CARBON TAX has had anything whatsoever to do with the plant closure?

Go ahead....make my day?

The real issue was site efficiency. Alcoa have built a smelter in the Middle East many times the size of Point Henry and next to the bauxite mine. The 60s technology there just can't compete.

[Bowser22]

Originally Posted by nuthin' fancy

What I want to know is what will happen to the site at Point Henry?

As do I, I've heard many stories that they've buried so much waste around land which have a 100 year lease. On would hope that they'd attempt to return it to what it was (a swampy marsh)

[robertjp]

Originally Posted by Road_Warrior

Dude, you know that thing called sarcasm, right?

Sorry didn't read the post, I stand humbled.