AT least 1000 jobs are tipped to go at manufacturing giant BlueScope Steel and workers across the sector have been warned to brace for big job losses.   :(

BlueScope will today announce it is set to close its Western Port hot strip mill at Hastings and its No.6 blast furnace at Port Kembla, near Wollongong, The Australian reports.

About 800 jobs will be lost in NSW and 200 in Victoria.   :(

The losses come as the nation's highest-profile union leader has warned workers to brace for big manufacturing job losses because of the high value of the Australian dollar.

Australian Workers Union chief Paul Howes said there was a crisis that would be one of the worst for manufacturing since the Great Depression of the 1930s.   :(

"We are now facing a major crisis in Australian manufacturing," Mr Howes told Sky News's Australian Agenda program yesterday.


"The next couple of weeks are going to see huge amounts of jobs in the manufacturing sector go.   :(

"This is one of the worst periods that Australian manufacturing has gone through since the Great Depression, and we are seeing a once-in-a-generation, or once-in-a-lifetime shift, in the Australian economy at the moment, primarily driven by the high Australian dollar."

Last week, Qantas revealed 1000 jobs would go and OneSteel said it was cutting 400 workers.   :(

Mr Howes said it was not the carbon tax that was to blame, but the high value of the dollar, while China's currency had become 40 per cent cheaper.

He also criticised Treasury figures on job growth.

"I'm very concerned about Treasury's advice on this matter, because Treasury seems to think that, you know, if you lose one job here that automatically that person is going to be replaced over here," he said.

"That isn't the case, and that's not our experience."   :(

Labor/Greens policies at their best......

Maybe the public servants can join them, if Tony Abbott wins the next election.   ;)

beware wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2011 at 8:05am:

Labor/Greens policies at their best......

http://www.commentsyard.com/graphics/lol/lol01.gif




Rising Aussie dollar could cost BlueScope millions
22 Apr, 2011

Wollongong exporters - led by BlueScope - will be hit hardest by the surging Australian dollar, which reached record levels yesterday against the US dollar.

If the exchange rate stays above $US1.07, where it was yesterday, it could cost BlueScope tens of millions of dollars and have more of an impact than some calculations of the carbon price.

BlueScope says a 1 cent fluctuation in the exchange rate costs it about $6 million in lost earnings, as about 60 per cent of the steel it produced was exported this year.

A 2 cent rise as seen in the past few days would cost BlueScope about the same amount as the lower predictions of a $20 carbon price - about $12 million a year.



http://www.illawarramercury.com.au/news/local/news/general/rising-aussie-dollar-could-cost-bluescope-millions/2142107.aspx

While the headlines concentrate on the immediate job losses, some of the fine print is worth highlighting.

According to Bluescope, its export business was losing money before the GFC hit, before our dollar flirted with US$1.10. If you can't make money from an activity, it makes sense to cease that activity. So, after more than three years of losing money on the export business, Bluescope is finally acting. No prizes for the Bluescope board being ahead of the game.

Also according to Bluescope, it can and does make money in other areas. It's an obvious idea then to concentrate on those areas. Closing one of its two Port Kembla blast furnaces neatly matches the capacity of that loss-making export trade.

That it was the export and not the domestic side of the business that was hopeless immediately negates the knee-jerk call for protection of one sort or another – preferential local content being a union favourite.

And, as usual, the “we're special” protectionists ignore the question of who pays for their industrial welfare: the rest of industry. With steel such an important base for construction and other manufacturing, any policy that gave Bluescope a leg up would be at the cost of the rest of the economy's competiveness. Protecting steel at the expense of everything else would be lunacy.  


http://www.smh.com.au/business/why-bluescopes-job-losses-are-a-good-sign-20110822-1j5u9.html#ixzz1VikgPf9R

buzzanddidj wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2011 at 12:32pm:

That it was the export and not the domestic side of the business that was hopeless immediately negates the knee-jerk call for protection of one sort or another – preferential local content being a union favourite.

I know the solution to that - a carbon tax.

Soren wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2011 at 2:28pm:

buzzanddidj wrote on Aug 22nd, 2011 at 12:32pm: That it was the export and not the domestic side of the business that was hopeless immediately negates the knee-jerk call for protection of one sort or another – preferential local content being a union favourite. I know the solution to that - a carbon tax.

I know you libbos want to blame the carbon tax for everything including the price of fish on mars but the truth is that the imported steel is cheaper because of the high aussie dollar. It's as simple as that ;)

Patch-work economy.

It’s the patch-work economy.

These things happen in a patch-work economy.

I saw 3 nodding, clueless heads telling me this, over an over, at lunch time.  

Sir lastnail wrote on Aug 22^nd, 2011 at 2:37pm:

Soren wrote on Aug 22nd, 2011 at 2:28pm: buzzanddidj wrote on Aug 22nd, 2011 at 12:32pm: That it was the export and not the domestic side of the business that was hopeless immediately negates the knee-jerk call for protection of one sort or another – preferential local content being a union favourite. I know the solution to that - a carbon tax. I know you libbos want to blame the carbon tax for everything including the price of fish on mars but the truth is that the imported steel is cheaper because of the high aussie dollar. It's as simple as that ;)

Well, let's make the local product even more expensive so the artificially cheap chinese prodducers can take not only AUstralia's export market share but our domestic market as well!!!

It doesn't matter what you've got if no one wants it...........and it seems like no one does. China stockpiled their steel last year and they're cutting back on building.