Port Pirie businesses welcome $135m Nyrstar smelter bailout but long-term concerns remain
In addition to employing around 900 people directly and hundreds of others indirectly, the smelter had been the port city's most significant employer for the past 130 years.
Mensland Port Pirie business owner Justin Turci said almost 50 per cent of his annual sales came from contracts with Nyrstar for staff work apparel, as well as D-lead wipes and soaps — which can remove lead, heavy metals and other contaminants from skin.
He said locals were no strangers to the ups and downs of the smelter's viability.
"Obviously it's a little bit of shock, but … we've been through this same thing quite a few times before," Mr Turci said.
"Hopefully [the bailout] secures the future for another [130] years in the town.
Earlier this week, the federal, South Australian and Tasmanian governments handed a joint $135 million bailout to Nyrstar Australia, which has smelters in Port Pirie and Hobart.
Nyrstar Australia said it would use the rescue package to "maintain its ongoing operations" at both sites, and also fund feasibility studies to see if the Port Pirie site could be upgraded to produce anitmony and bismuth, and the Hobart site to produce germanium and indium.
Nyrstar Australia had called on the government for urgent help back in June, chief executive Matt Howell said the Port Pirie smelter was losing "tens of millions [of dollars] a month".
Poppy and Posy owner and florist Edyn Manfield said over the two years she had owned her store, she had seen how bad times at the smelter had a noticeable impact on her sales.
"I've had to shut the doors a couple of times a week or, you know, buy less stock or flowers … just by having less people come through the door," she said.
"They've got other priorities that come first rather than buying flowers, which is understandable."
Of the hundreds of people employed both directly and indirectly by the historic smelter, Ms Manfield said she knew at least 20, adding it would be difficult to find any local without a connection of some kind.
Cafe 124 owner Blake Cagney hoped the bailout would keep the local economy afloat and bring more people into town.
"Especially with the contracting happening down the smelters and more people coming in and infrastructure to be built," Mr Cagney said.
"That's quite massive for a lot of businesses around here, but not just to us, it's every small business … [from] safety shops and whatnot to coffee shops and meeting places."
Mr Cagney's mum and the cafe's manager, Jodi Spartalis, said the bailout brought "a sense of relief" to small business owners like her family, who had run Port Pirie businesses since they first migrated to the town from Greece in the 1940s.
"We're all been sort of waiting and been a bit worried about the whole situation," she said.
"Being a small business, you do worry, because you want everyone to be comfortable in their environment and have the money coming in and jobs there.
"I've been born and bred here, this is my home.
"A lot of families have had so much time and love and effort put into their community that makes it what it is today.
Resources analyst Tim Treadgold said a challenge for Nyrstar's operations going forward would be competing with China for the raw materials needed to make metals, including steel and zinc.
Mr Treadgold said another hindrance could be the vast difference in energy and labour costs between China and Australia.
"China has set about a very deliberate policy of dominating the supply of essential raw materials and it's using that market dominance [to] dictate prices," he said.
"This could well be the start of a ginormous Kodak moment and the Australian [government] bailed out Kodak when it promised to keep making film in Australia.
"It did for a while and then it walked away.
"If Nyrstar is able to convince the Australian government that it needs a taxpayer handout, why wouldn't it take it, if the Australian government is happy to provide the money?"
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