Thread: Our latest scheme for getting casual Workers

Originally Posted by Fatso

Very selective in which part of my post you answered .

as i see it, the other part should be a tad obvious i would have thought.

no surprise bhp failed, the competition was allowed to go around them. if it was a flat playing field (for australian product) then they either had to buy inferior product from other countries or play the game the way we would like it played.

very few places up till now have offered the same quality of raw material i am told.

the bottom line is, the end product would have to be sold at a competitive price, so no fat cheques for extended smokoes or upper mangement perks that make it uncompetitive etc etc

is a pipe dream i know ....

Originally Posted by BMKal

There have been numerous efforts to turn Australia's coal and iron ore into "value added" products. Various steelworks around the country - Wollongong, Newcastle, Whyalla and others, the HBI plant in Port Hedland, "Ausmelt" in Kwinana, Wundowie Foundry ........... the list goes on. None has ever been able to compete on the world market, and almost all are now gone.

The cost of transporting iron ore to the Kiwinana HiSmelt ironmaking plant exceeded the cost of transporting iron ore to China.

For those advocating the export of iron ingots, how do you do that with those sorts of cost structures to contend with?

all the final processing would all have to be up north i reckon

big hydro electric plants built taking advantage of the massive rainfall..

wouldn't be easy

would be the snowy mountains scheme and then some ... a nation building exercise shall we say.

Iron and steel. We produced 17% of the ore! but are the world biggest exporter.
As to our steel plants, bmkal BSL just won a dumping case as it's cheaper to buy slab or coil stamped "made in china" in Sydney or Thailand than it is in china. The Chinese govt give export bonuses which forced BSL to halve production as we used to export 2.5-2.9 million tons of steel.
If the govt had the guts to say process it here you could cut mining by 80% and still employ far more people on a similar income with a better balance of trade. Ore is 120-160 a ton compared to steel at 750-1200+ for slab or coil.
This would be far better for the environment as a side benefit. You could ship coal to the steel mills in WA and they could load iron ore for steel plant next to the coking coal seams in NSW and Qld. Compared to the current practice of full ships of coal and ore to Asia coming back empty.
And as to who threw the first slight, if somebody has a direct go in post 25 and then not really retract it in 26(it's called the edit button nugget) then get the huffs over a simple question, if he asked for their house on the line, did he offer part ownership?

Originally Posted by incisor

all the final processing would all have to be up north i reckon

big hydro electric plants built taking advantage of the massive rainfall..

wouldn't be easy

would be the snowy mountains scheme and then some ... a nation building exercise shall we say.

That will never happens, someone will do his best to find a very rare ant that would be in danger of extinction then few studies will be carried out at the cost of millions of dollars and when it is lost they will take the case to the UN
I am sarcastic or pessimist

Trying to sell ingots and steel to china and japan etc would be like trying to sell iron ore / coal and wheat to Australia . The only reason we have such a good market 4 our iron ore is the logistics of supply and price to Asia/China as compared to brazil , and if was not for China and Korea our market would still be as low as the 70/80s period when we sold iron ore mostly to Japan .

Iron & Steel Industry in Brazil I Brazil Economy I Brazilian Iron Ore Producers & Steelmakers
Hmm. Brazilian govt putting pressure on worlds largest miner , vale , to build steel mills, along with an iron ore centre in china. And home to 14 steel mills exporting 15million tons plus per year.
Fatso china is the worlds biggest producer and user of steel, with around the population of the Netherlands ,18million increase ,entering the workforce every year they need steel to build homes, transport and places to work etc

The Indian company Aratiri will start mining 2,500 million tonnes in Uruguay, enough for 20 to 30 years production.