Rio Tinto says it is too early to tell if there will be job losses at the plant. Photo / Dean Purcell
Rio Tinto says it is too early to tell if there will be job losses at the plant. Photo / Dean Purcell
KEY POINTS:
Rio Tinto's Bluff aluminium smelter will be part of the worldwide review that will cut 14,000 jobs early next year.
The company has nearly 800 full-time-equivalent employees and more than 100 contractors at its Tiwai Pt plant, but says it is too early to tell if it willbe affected.
"We are in the very early stages of implementing some of these measures. There are no specifics in terms of what impact it will have on Tiwai Pt or any other operation," a spokeswoman said.
The review would cut across all sectors of the global workforce of 112,000, including 97,000 of its own staff. The spokeswoman said the review would be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Rio's main resources, iron ore, copper and aluminium have been hit by the global commodity slide.
Most cuts are expected to come from the aluminium sector where prices have plunged from a five-year high of US$3200 ($5862) a tonne in July to US$1500 a tonne.
The company cut 10 per cent of production at Tiwai Pt - or 2900 tonnes a month - in May to avoid paying high spot power prices. A transformer failure meant the equivalent of a further 5500 tonnes a month was lost last month.
The company says independent analysis of the economic benefit of the smelter to the New Zealand economy is $3.65 billion. Rio Tinto has an 80 per cent stake in the smelter. Sumitomo Chemical holds the rest.
