Job losses at Port Kembla steel works

BSS reports it is experiencing an unprecedented combination of economic challenges in the form of a record high Australian dollar, low steel prices and high raw material costs and low domestic steel demand as a result of the global economic downturn.

BSS will shut down one of its two blast furnaces in early October 2011, reducing steel production to 2.6 million tonnes a year. BSS will also be shutting one of four coke ovens and one of the three BOS
units and one of three slab casters. It is expected about 800 job losses at the Port Kembla steel works.