Latest news with #Ayres
Sky News AU
21-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Energy crisis forces Labor to mull 'band aid solutions' for failing metal smelters as energy crisis plagues manufacturers
The Albanese government has been accused of considering 'band aid solutions' for major manufacturers struggling to stay afloat amid soaring power prices under Labor's renewable energy transition. Industry Minister Tim Ayres said Labor could provide taxpayer funds and long-term loans to assist ailing smelters crippled by energy costs and China-instigated trade distortions. 'The truth is, if these facilities didn't exist, governments would be trying to build them,' Mr Ayres told The Australian Financial Review. It comes as many smelters and refineries struggle to stay afloat in Australia. Rio Tinto-owned Tomago, which is Australia's largest aluminium producer, is seeking billions of dollars from the federal and NSW governments amid high power prices and as cost-effective and consistent renewables remain largely unavailable. Two Australian smelters owned by international minerals and metals producer Nyrstar are also under threat and the local CEO has begged various state and federal governments for a handout as losses mount to "tens of millions a month". Meanwhile, Glencore's local smelters and refineries similarly struggle in a massive blow to the Albanese government's Future Made in Australia plans. Centre for Independent Studies policy analyst Zoe Hilton told this revelation from Mr Ayres showed how Labor's net zero plans were hurting local industries. 'The government has shot itself in the foot on energy policy,' Ms Hilton said. 'The consequences of its commitment to a wind- and solar-dominated grid are being acutely felt by smelters and the pain will continue until the root cause is addressed. 'Equity injections and long-term loans for smelters are merely band aid solutions that will force taxpayers to pay twice – first for underwriting renewable energy projects and second for propping up industries that can't afford electricity price hikes driven by renewables.' Labor has vowed to make the nation a 'renewable energy superpower' with an energy mix of 82 per cent renewables by 2030 and green energy driving local manufacturing. The Albanese government is looking to boost this through production tax credits for leading Australian aluminium smelters, including Tomago, and give $2 billion back to help with the energy transition. Concerns over Australia's long term manufacturing capabilities also arose from AI Group chief executive Innes Willox who warned that 'bailouts cannot be for business as usual'. 'Short-term relief measures must be complemented by a long-term perspective that addresses the energy, skills and technology challenges weighing on our metals sector,' Mr Willox told He said the upcoming productivity roundtable hosted by Treasurer Jim Chalmers, where the Albanese government's second term economic agenda will come under the microscope, is crucial for examining problems plaguing manufacturing in Australia. 'It is a seminal moment for industry and a legacy moment for the country as a whole,' the AI Group boss said. 'We just can't keep going as we have been because what's got us to this point isn't going to make us successful in the future.' Soaring energy prices have particularly hurt the metals industry in Australia since the pandemic. Mr Willox said manufacturer gas costs are up 48 per cent for the past five years and for trade exposed industries like metals, passing these customers onto consumers is not possible. Other concerns about metal smelting in Australia come from Nyrstar boss Matthew Howell, who recently asked the government for help upgrading the company's facilities to make it more competitive in the global market. Mr Howell said the Chinese government subsidises companies to purchase Australian materials at prices local smelters could not afford. China then subsidises the processing of these materials and enforces export controls on the finished metals, hurting Australian producers in the process. Meanwhile, Glencore's head of corporate affairs Cass McCarthy lamented the company's ability to compete while high energy and labour costs hurt its profitability. 'This is bigger than Glencore and goes to the heart of state and federal government critical minerals policies when you have a number of smelters and refineries across Australia clearly at breaking point,' Ms McCarthy said, per The Australian. The NSW government in June confirmed it was in talks to save Tomago, which uses about 10 per cent of the state's power supply and makes about 37 per cent of the nation's aluminium. Premier Chris Minns stressed Tomago was a 'big employer in NSW, it's a dynamic part of the state, the Hunter and manufacturing is a big part of its future'. 'It's difficult for me to speculate about what the next steps are,' Mr Minns told reporters. 'In order for us to have an effective intervention, we need to have commercial discussions with the owners and operators of (Tomago). That's what we're doing.' Rio Tinto's chief executive Jakob Stausholm earlier this year flagged concerns about the producer's electricity costs where he warned power price contracts beyond 2028 would render Tomago unviable.
Spectator
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
The greatest decade for British painting since Turner and Constable? The 1970s
Slowly the canvas was unfurled across the concrete floor of a warehouse on an industrial estate in Suffolk. On and on it went, a flurry of paint marks and brush strokes, yellow, green and occasionally blue, like a cornfield at harvest time. By the time we got to the end some seven metres of it lay stretched out at our feet. It was the first time anyone had seen this unknown magnum opus by Gillian Ayres since it was rolled up in 1974 – and it looked sensational. Recently I've been reflecting on the 1970s for a couple of reasons. One is that I'm working on a book about art in London at that time, the other is that I've been helping to organise an exhibition of Ayres's work from that era at the Heong Gallery, Downing College, Cambridge. Of course, as L.P. Hartley noted, the day before the day before yesterday is alien territory – and the maps we have of it may not be reliable. It strikes me as a period from which much art and many artists are waiting to be resurrected and re-examined. Artistically the early 1970s was a period in which painting was out. Everybody knew that at the time, including the painters. But that does not mean that good pictures were not being created, on the contrary. Simply by a count of masterpieces, it ranks as one of richest since Turner and Constable were exhibiting side by side at the Royal Academy. Francis Bacon was still working at full power. David Hockney produced such marvellous works as the two canvases, 'My Parents' and 'Looking at Pictures on a Screen', both 1977, which last year in the National Gallery hung on either side of Piero della Francesca's 'Baptism', withstanding that exalted comparison with aplomb. Meanwhile Lucian Freud was just entering his late phase, rich in magnificent portraits, with and without clothes, and also painting a group of London landscapes, among the bleakest and most evocative of all images of that city. Among numerous other fine figurative painters, Frank Auerbach, Euan Uglow, Leon Kossoff and Michael Andrews were all working at full power. Then there was a vigorous, and varied community of abstractionists, including not only Ayres, but Bridget Riley, Frank Bowling and Sean Scully. Nonetheless, the general view was that painting was if not dead, certainly moribund (or smelt bad, as John Lennon is supposed to have put it). At St Martins School of Art, where Ayres taught until 1978, other members of staff used to warn the students: 'Don't listen to her, she'll make you want to paint'. In some cases, she did. Personally, Ayres reacted against this tide of fashion by luxuriating in her medium. Her environment and – quite frequently – the artist herself were covered in the stuff. The painter Mali Morris recalled attending a party during the 1970s at Ayres's house on Beverley Road, Barnes. The door was opened not by the artist herself, but by her then dealer Kasmin. He was dressed in an outfit startling even for a social gathering in that unconventional decade: 'one of those paper boiler suits that forensic teams wear to the scene of the crime'. This precaution was 'very necessary', Kasmin explained, since he always got covered in paint whenever he visited this dwelling. He was right. When she got home she discovered her party dress was smeared with Prussian blue, probably the result of sitting on a kitchen chair that doubled as a palette. Later in the decade Ayres changed from paintings of remarkable length to ones with extreme thickness of impasto. 'Handfuls of paint' as she put it – which she did not mean metaphorically. She worked, as her friend the critic Tim Hilton noted, 'in some intimacy with her picture, with fingers, rag and torn-off scraps of cardboard'. The results were paintings with a texture like some sumptuous textile. Ayres remembered how, 'when people came to the house they used to say, what are those? Are those carpets pinned up all over the walls?' At a distance of four decades they look magnificent. In the early 1970s Ayres's whole house was turned into an extended studio. Her son Sam Mundy remembers how he and his brother Jim sometimes had to crawl under a canvas to get into the sitting-room to watch television. Other works were pinned up in the loft space and, in summer, stretched down the garden. Not every artist worked at home. This was an era in which artists were searching for larger places to work – partly because art itself, especially painting, was tending to get bigger. Empty space was a commodity which in the depopulated and rundown city of the 1970s was plentiful – and cheap. Peter Sedgley, an op and kinetic artist, briefly considered taking over the decayed remains of the Marshalsea prison, familiar from Dickens's Little Dorrit. When these premises proved impractical he and his then-partner Bridget Riley transformed part of the disused St Katharine Docks into a warren of communal studios. The square footage was enormous but heating was nugatory. Michael Craig-Martin had a studio there, warmed by a portable gas fire. He remembers, 'standing so close to it that my legs were almost bursting into flames and the rest of me was absolutely frozen'. For much of the 1970s Antony Gormley worked in a squatted ex-factory on King's Cross Road shared with numerous other indigent artists (this was the golden age of squatting). 'None of us,' he told me, 'were making any money.' Detail of 'Achnabreck', 1978, by Gillian Ayres. JO UNDERHILL London in the 1970s was a city crowded with artists of every kind, but largely lacking in anyone willing to buy their work. This unbalanced state of affairs had developed after the second world war. Previously in Britain, professional artists had been a vanishingly tiny group. Lucian Freud remembered that when he told people at parties what he did they'd reply: 'I wasn't asking about your hobbies.' But that changed in the 1940s and 1950s. In the autumn of 1945 so many would-be artists flocked to the Camberwell School of Art that extra buses had to be put on from Camberwell Green. The number of people making art and who wanted to see it both greatly increased, but the tally of collectors did not keep pace. By the 1970s, especially after the oil shock, it was worse. Kasmin, who also represented Hockney and the sculptor Anthony Caro, recalled that at that date, he had to travel to sell. 'I sold pictures in Belgium, a little bit in Germany and a great deal in America.' Art had become a curiously self-supporting activity. With the exception of a tiny handful of stars – such as Henry Moore and Francis Bacon – most artists supported themselves wholly or partly by teaching. Once they'd graduated the best of their students went on to do the same. The result was a period of remarkable creativity and limitless innovation. Art schools such as St Martins and Goldsmiths fizzed with ideas, all the more so since sales were an improbable outcome whatever kind of art you produced. Highly uncommercial idioms proliferated: land art, performance art, conceptual art. Gilbert & George, star students from St Martins, pioneered the notion of living sculpture. Even painting, though a more traditional medium, was frequently approached in a highly uncommercial manner. Certainly it was by Ayres. Naturally abstractions like the one we unrolled in Suffolk – along which it was necessary to walk to get the full experience – remained unsold and largely unseen. Few private houses contain a suitable spot for such a work, and not all public galleries either. Many canvases of similar length, perhaps up to 30, remain rolled up in Ayres's old studio. They constitute a reminder that the era of Edward Heath, the Thorpe trial and the three-day week is also an art-historical time capsule full of artists and art awaiting rediscovery.
West Australian
27-06-2025
- Business
- West Australian
Minister Tim Ayres says job fears shouldn't hold Australia back on Artificial Intelligence, productivity
Australia must embrace the opportunities of artificial intelligence in the job market or risk falling behind in the global race to adopt digital technology, says new Industry and Innovation Minister Tim Ayres. In an exclusive interview with The Nightly, Senator Ayres said that eschewing the advantages of cutting-edge AI in the workplace over job fears would be more detrimental to the employment market overall, urging the country to adapt with the times to boost productivity. Investing in technology was 'not a zero-sum game' for the labour market, he said, calling for a 'big national conversation' between institutions, trade unions, business groups and the research and development sector to set objectives in the country's best interests. In wide-ranging comments, he spruiked his ambition to make Australia a top-shelf destination for data centres and to invest in infrastructure that would shape the nation's digital future rather than leave it 'at the end of someone else's technological supply chain.' He also hinted at a lighter touch approach to regulating rapidly advancing technology while stressing the urgency of finding the right safeguards. Senator Ayres had just moved into his new ministerial office in Parliament House when The Nightly spoke with him, but Toby Walsh's The Shortest History of AI was already one of two books sitting prominently on his desk. It offers a glimpse into the daunting challenges he faces to maximise the benefits of artificial intelligence while protecting the country from its risks. This includes concerns about how to weigh up technological progress with the impact of AI on jobs in manufacturing and other sectors. Senator Ayres, who had a long career as a senior official in the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union before entering parliament, acknowledged the hurdles but underscored the potential for more job creation. 'The only thing that would be more disruptive in terms of employment and job opportunities is stepping back, having economies that pass us by,' he said. 'I'm absolutely seized of the importance of investment and economic growth and good jobs and productivity in terms of leaning into the challenge. 'That's not without risks, and we need to work together in an Australian formulation, working collectively across the economy to make sure we get the best outcome for the country.' Every wave of technological change involved reshaping the labour market, Senator Ayres argued. 'My experience in manufacturing, as automation stepped up, as adoption of digital technology stepped up, is that involved jobs changing, some jobs going and investment in new jobs and capability,' he said. Senator Ayres said he was seeking a 'pragmatic' path between 'artificial intelligence boosters' promoting a utopian approach and 'artificial intelligence doomsayers.' The Minister said he was determined to put the tech sector and investment in new industrial capabilities at the centre of the debate as the Government prepares to host a productivity roundtable on August 19 to 21. The meeting in the Cabinet room will draw together senior politicians with business, union and civil society representatives to find common ground on long-term economic reform. Australia's challenges in tackling sluggish productivity growth were not unique among Western nations, argued Senator Ayres. 'Australia can't afford to step backwards in technological terms, because that will be one of the key drivers of productivity growth over the coming decade,' he said. But beyond the roundtable and ongoing productivity debate, the Senator must also help set the direction for major Government decisions on a national strategy for safety standards for AI and the digital economy, whether through regulation or voluntary codes. Treasurer Jim Chalmers set the tone of the approach earlier this month at a speech at the National Press Club outlining his ministry's priorities for the new term. Dr Chalmers said he would work with Senator Ayres and Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Dr Andrew Charlton to 'capitalise on the huge gains on offer, not just set guardrails'. 'We want to get the best out of new technology and investment in data infrastructure in ways that leverage our strengths, work for our people and best manage impacts on our energy system and natural environment,' Dr Chalmers said. Landing on a risk-based model for regulating AI is unfinished business from Labor's first term, and an issue where the Government is coming under increasing pressure to act and to more clearly define its policy. Senator Ayres' predecessor Ed Husic last term launched a 'mandatory guardrails' consultation to moot an Australian AI Act that would impose minimum standards on high-risk AI models across the economy. Mr Husic backs the proposal of an AI Act to provide certainty about how to mitigate the risks in what he describes as the current 'Swiss cheese landscape' of regulation. But Senator Ayres indicated he was going to take a cautious path, and said he was not yet ready to commit to major policy decisions without further consultation. 'I'm going to work carefully through that set of issues and talk to colleagues before I reach a final view about the right approach on the regulatory front and the legislative front,' he said. As a new Minister, he wanted to evaluate work already underway 'before I shoot my mouth off about where we land on these precise sort of regulatory architecture questions,' he said. He insisted would reach the 'right outcome in short order' to give guidance to industry and the public. 'My instinctive response is leaning into the opportunity. That's the overall setting here, and that's my starting point,' he said. Senator Ayres stressed that no country on Earth believed there should be a completely unregulated approach to artificial intelligence development or adoption and signalled he was assessing the models and approaches of partner economies. But less than two months into the job, the Minister already faces rising calls from industry bodies, experts and civil society groups to better define policies to allow AI to boost innovation, living standards and productivity and also to mitigate the risks. A landmark report by the Business Council of Australia (BCA) released in early June outlined a blueprint to make the nation a global leader in AI by 2028, and called among multiple recommendations for 'clear, practical and risk-based AI regulations that encourage innovation'. The BCA report warned that without immediate action, Australia risked falling behind competitor nations racing ahead in AI capability and adoption. Senator Ayres said he was acting on the 'urgency' of the issues. 'I don't want to set a timeframe but I am absolutely seized of the urgency of it, absolutely engaged with the tech sector and the investment community where there is a very consistent message about the sense of urgency about these questions,' he said. 'I'm absolutely seized as well of aligning this line of effort with the other lines of effort that the Government has on the productivity and investment side.'
TimesLIVE
24-06-2025
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Australia begins formal sale process for Gupta's Whyalla Steelworks
'Selected prospective buyers have been granted access to a secure data room, enabling initial due diligence and allowing parties to prepare non-binding indicative offers,' said federal industry minister Tim Ayres. 'A range of prospective buyers have expressed interest in acquiring and transforming the integrated operations.' The independent sale process will be led by administrator KordaMentha and sale advisers 333 Capital, Ayres said. Gupta's family conglomerate, GFG Alliance, did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment. In March, GFG said it remained the largest creditor in Whyalla Steelworks at A$536m (R6.1bn). The privately held conglomerate has been refinancing its global businesses in steel, aluminium and energy since its backer, supply chain finance firm Greensill, filed for insolvency in March 2021. Another subsidiary, Liberty Steel East Europe, was put into administration late last year.
The Advertiser
11-06-2025
- Business
- The Advertiser
Minister says he is optimistic about Tomago Aluminium's future, despite increasing energy prices
Newly appointed industry minister Tim Ayres said he is optimistic about the ongoing viability and future of Tomago Aluminium, but acknowledged governments must work with industry to meet the challenges of the clean energy transition. It follows reports that the smelter, which employs 1500 people and supports an extra 5000 across the region, is in talks to secure billions of dollars in support from the NSW and federal governments to help it manage rising energy costs. Tomago chief executive Jerome Dozol warned last November that high energy prices were putting the plant's future in jeopardy and called for urgent action to secure its continued operation. The smelter produces about 600,000 tonnes of aluminium, which requires a constant power supply of 950 megawatts, or about 12 per cent of the state's power. It has committed to shifting as close as possible to running on renewable energy by 2035, but the company has also stated that it will need certainty of supply to achieve the goal. The Australian Financial Review has reported that current talks are focused on the smelter's electricity contract for 2026 to 2029 and the design of the federal government's production tax credits. Mr Ayres, who is due to visit the smelter on Friday, said he was unable to comment about discussions between Tomago and its energy provider, AGL. Tomago and its part-owner, Rio Tinto, have also declined to comment about the talks. Mr Ayres said governments and industry needed to work collaboratively on the challenges facing the energy-intensive aluminium sector. "I'm optimistic about its future, but I'm not complacent; everybody's got a part to play here. I've got a role to play, the Commonwealth government and NSW government, the electricity suppliers, Tomago themselves and the supply chain around them," he said. "We've all got a common interest in a shared vision for what is a core industrial asset for the Hunter Valley and a core part of the region's economic future." The government pledged $2 billion in production tax credits in January for Australia's four aluminium smelters: Tomago, Bell Bay, Boyne and Victoria's Portland, which is operated by Alcoa, to help with the energy transition. Mr Ayres acknowledged more work was needed to realise the initiative's goal. "We've got vast solar and wind resources and a government that has stepped in with a production credit to make sure that local aluminium production is competitive globally," he said. "We are fully engaged; the decision (about production credits) has been made, and it's of vast scale. Of course, we're going to keep working with the sector on design and make sure it delivers the outcome and the impact that it's designed to do." The government estimates the Australian-made aluminium sector will grow from $5.1 billion to $6 billion per year in revenue by 2050. A 2023 Accenture report showed a thriving future metals industry could deliver up to $122 billion a year in export revenue to Australia's economy by 2040. Newly appointed industry minister Tim Ayres said he is optimistic about the ongoing viability and future of Tomago Aluminium, but acknowledged governments must work with industry to meet the challenges of the clean energy transition. It follows reports that the smelter, which employs 1500 people and supports an extra 5000 across the region, is in talks to secure billions of dollars in support from the NSW and federal governments to help it manage rising energy costs. Tomago chief executive Jerome Dozol warned last November that high energy prices were putting the plant's future in jeopardy and called for urgent action to secure its continued operation. The smelter produces about 600,000 tonnes of aluminium, which requires a constant power supply of 950 megawatts, or about 12 per cent of the state's power. It has committed to shifting as close as possible to running on renewable energy by 2035, but the company has also stated that it will need certainty of supply to achieve the goal. The Australian Financial Review has reported that current talks are focused on the smelter's electricity contract for 2026 to 2029 and the design of the federal government's production tax credits. Mr Ayres, who is due to visit the smelter on Friday, said he was unable to comment about discussions between Tomago and its energy provider, AGL. Tomago and its part-owner, Rio Tinto, have also declined to comment about the talks. Mr Ayres said governments and industry needed to work collaboratively on the challenges facing the energy-intensive aluminium sector. "I'm optimistic about its future, but I'm not complacent; everybody's got a part to play here. I've got a role to play, the Commonwealth government and NSW government, the electricity suppliers, Tomago themselves and the supply chain around them," he said. "We've all got a common interest in a shared vision for what is a core industrial asset for the Hunter Valley and a core part of the region's economic future." The government pledged $2 billion in production tax credits in January for Australia's four aluminium smelters: Tomago, Bell Bay, Boyne and Victoria's Portland, which is operated by Alcoa, to help with the energy transition. Mr Ayres acknowledged more work was needed to realise the initiative's goal. "We've got vast solar and wind resources and a government that has stepped in with a production credit to make sure that local aluminium production is competitive globally," he said. "We are fully engaged; the decision (about production credits) has been made, and it's of vast scale. Of course, we're going to keep working with the sector on design and make sure it delivers the outcome and the impact that it's designed to do." The government estimates the Australian-made aluminium sector will grow from $5.1 billion to $6 billion per year in revenue by 2050. A 2023 Accenture report showed a thriving future metals industry could deliver up to $122 billion a year in export revenue to Australia's economy by 2040. Newly appointed industry minister Tim Ayres said he is optimistic about the ongoing viability and future of Tomago Aluminium, but acknowledged governments must work with industry to meet the challenges of the clean energy transition. It follows reports that the smelter, which employs 1500 people and supports an extra 5000 across the region, is in talks to secure billions of dollars in support from the NSW and federal governments to help it manage rising energy costs. Tomago chief executive Jerome Dozol warned last November that high energy prices were putting the plant's future in jeopardy and called for urgent action to secure its continued operation. The smelter produces about 600,000 tonnes of aluminium, which requires a constant power supply of 950 megawatts, or about 12 per cent of the state's power. It has committed to shifting as close as possible to running on renewable energy by 2035, but the company has also stated that it will need certainty of supply to achieve the goal. The Australian Financial Review has reported that current talks are focused on the smelter's electricity contract for 2026 to 2029 and the design of the federal government's production tax credits. Mr Ayres, who is due to visit the smelter on Friday, said he was unable to comment about discussions between Tomago and its energy provider, AGL. Tomago and its part-owner, Rio Tinto, have also declined to comment about the talks. Mr Ayres said governments and industry needed to work collaboratively on the challenges facing the energy-intensive aluminium sector. "I'm optimistic about its future, but I'm not complacent; everybody's got a part to play here. I've got a role to play, the Commonwealth government and NSW government, the electricity suppliers, Tomago themselves and the supply chain around them," he said. "We've all got a common interest in a shared vision for what is a core industrial asset for the Hunter Valley and a core part of the region's economic future." The government pledged $2 billion in production tax credits in January for Australia's four aluminium smelters: Tomago, Bell Bay, Boyne and Victoria's Portland, which is operated by Alcoa, to help with the energy transition. Mr Ayres acknowledged more work was needed to realise the initiative's goal. "We've got vast solar and wind resources and a government that has stepped in with a production credit to make sure that local aluminium production is competitive globally," he said. "We are fully engaged; the decision (about production credits) has been made, and it's of vast scale. Of course, we're going to keep working with the sector on design and make sure it delivers the outcome and the impact that it's designed to do." The government estimates the Australian-made aluminium sector will grow from $5.1 billion to $6 billion per year in revenue by 2050. A 2023 Accenture report showed a thriving future metals industry could deliver up to $122 billion a year in export revenue to Australia's economy by 2040. Newly appointed industry minister Tim Ayres said he is optimistic about the ongoing viability and future of Tomago Aluminium, but acknowledged governments must work with industry to meet the challenges of the clean energy transition. It follows reports that the smelter, which employs 1500 people and supports an extra 5000 across the region, is in talks to secure billions of dollars in support from the NSW and federal governments to help it manage rising energy costs. Tomago chief executive Jerome Dozol warned last November that high energy prices were putting the plant's future in jeopardy and called for urgent action to secure its continued operation. The smelter produces about 600,000 tonnes of aluminium, which requires a constant power supply of 950 megawatts, or about 12 per cent of the state's power. It has committed to shifting as close as possible to running on renewable energy by 2035, but the company has also stated that it will need certainty of supply to achieve the goal. The Australian Financial Review has reported that current talks are focused on the smelter's electricity contract for 2026 to 2029 and the design of the federal government's production tax credits. Mr Ayres, who is due to visit the smelter on Friday, said he was unable to comment about discussions between Tomago and its energy provider, AGL. Tomago and its part-owner, Rio Tinto, have also declined to comment about the talks. Mr Ayres said governments and industry needed to work collaboratively on the challenges facing the energy-intensive aluminium sector. "I'm optimistic about its future, but I'm not complacent; everybody's got a part to play here. I've got a role to play, the Commonwealth government and NSW government, the electricity suppliers, Tomago themselves and the supply chain around them," he said. "We've all got a common interest in a shared vision for what is a core industrial asset for the Hunter Valley and a core part of the region's economic future." The government pledged $2 billion in production tax credits in January for Australia's four aluminium smelters: Tomago, Bell Bay, Boyne and Victoria's Portland, which is operated by Alcoa, to help with the energy transition. Mr Ayres acknowledged more work was needed to realise the initiative's goal. "We've got vast solar and wind resources and a government that has stepped in with a production credit to make sure that local aluminium production is competitive globally," he said. "We are fully engaged; the decision (about production credits) has been made, and it's of vast scale. Of course, we're going to keep working with the sector on design and make sure it delivers the outcome and the impact that it's designed to do." The government estimates the Australian-made aluminium sector will grow from $5.1 billion to $6 billion per year in revenue by 2050. A 2023 Accenture report showed a thriving future metals industry could deliver up to $122 billion a year in export revenue to Australia's economy by 2040.
