June 29: Australia’s only tinplate mill is to be closed as part of a restructuring programme by its owner BlueScope Steel.
Shutting the Port Kembla mill in New South Wales is one of a number of cut backs at BlueScope that includes closure of its manufacturing operations in Taiwan and the elimination of up to 600 management and staff jobs.
With two lines and a capacity of 400,000 tonnes of tinplate, the mill supplies domestic canmaking customers such as Visy, Amcor and NCI.