[QUOTE=PADDLES;1352229]reading in the paper this morning it appears as if alcoa are talking of shutting down their point henry operation and even the australian manager of rusal is talking about slowing down their operations here as well as a result of the high carbon price in this country. he did go on to say that china would take up the slack in worldwide demand (if aussie operations fold) in an instant. so in one fell swoop ms gillard and her world climate changing??? carbon tax could make the aluminium processing industry in australia extinct rendering tens of thousands of people jobless and the processing would then go offshore to a country with a very low carbon price, yet still with high carbon emmissions.
What complete bullshit!! Although legislation has been passed on a carbon tax this does not come into effect until July this year. It has also been clearly stated by Alan Cransberg ( Alcoa of Aust M.D. ) that the review of operations at Point Henry is due to high input costs ( alumina & bauxite ) , the high A$ , a 20% drop in world price for Aluminium , a glut on the market combined with a lessening demand , also stated that the upcoming carbon tax had no role in the review. Plant is 49 years old and despite 20% productivity gains over the last 4 years the company says the current global economic conditions meant it was not profitable in the "forseeable future".
Alcoa also have a plant at Portland which has been modernised & employs a similar amount of people & is not subject to review.
BHP Billiton recently indicated that it would probably not invest in the aluminium sector due to "structural pressures" , whilst Rio Tinto is still choking on it's US$40 billion acquisition of Alcan in 2007 ( and will be for a considerable time ).
As to production going to China this is a given with the Chinese government artifically holding the Yuan @ 30 % or more below it's true value. Knock 30% of the A$ bringing it back to around 70c and all manufacturers / exporters and the tourist industry would be happy. Free trade - level playing field ?? Yeah right.
Cheers Kevin