Port Hedland strike to cost iron-ore miners A$100m a day – BHP
PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining giant BHP Billiton has warned that a possible industrial action at the port of Port Hedland could have severe consequences for Australia’s exports and could damage the country’s reputation.
BHP iron-ore president Jimmy Wilson was responding to a threat from the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) that tugboat operations planned to down tools in a dispute with Teekay Marine.
“Industrial action by the MUA will stop all shipments out of the port and cost exporters like BHP, Fortescue and Atlas Iron around A$100-million a day. In addition, the state and federal governments stand to lose tens of millions of dollars a day in royalties and corporate tax revenue,” Wilson warned.
“Mining companies like BHP will not be able to make up the shipments lost during industrial action, and governments cannot recover the lost royalties and taxes.”
It has been reported that tugboat workers have voted to shut down Port Hedland for up to a week if negotiations on a new enterprise bargaining agreement were not resolved.
Wilson expressed his concern about the progress of conciliation talks between employer Teekay Marine and the maritime unions for the new enterprise bargaining agreements.
“BHP and the resources industry across Australia is working hard to improve productivity and remain competitive in a challenging economic environment.
“The MUA is pursuing an unacceptable high salary rise of almost 10% a year and an increase in annual leave without any link to improved productivity,” Wilson added.
He pointed out that the maritime employees at Port Hedland were already the highest paid in the towage industry in Australia, and said that their demands were “unreasonable” and “out of touch” with the current economic conditions.
Comments
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation