Nyrstar warns of ‘urgent, serious’ risk of smelter closure

Metal processor Nyrstar Australia urgently needs to secure a government rescue package to ensure a future for its loss-making smelters in South Australia and Tasmania, as The Australian Financial Review reports.

Chief executive Matt Howell said the company’s Swiss owner was weighing whether to close the plants within weeks.

Howell, who took over as chief executive of Nyrstar Australia in January, has been locked in talks with the federal, South Australian and Tasmanian governments for months on assistance. The three governments are now close to a deal, with an outcome expected as early as this week.

The assistance would help weather “several hundred million” in losses expected over the next two years while the company considers whether it can upgrade the plants to process critical minerals.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are required for the rebuild of the Port Pirie smelter in South Australia, while a $400 million upgrade is needed at the Nyrstar smelter near Hobart.

“This is urgent, it is serious,” Howell said. “It’s not something that we can kick down the road, where we can say we will deal with that in the next budget … it will be too late.”

The crisis underlines the financial struggles faced by manufacturers of aluminium, nickel, copper and other metals amid significant declines in treatment and refining charges, as well as rising energy costs.

Trafigura placed Nyrstar’s zinc smelter in Hobart under strategic review in March.

“We’re measuring it in weeks, not months. This is imminent,” Howell said.

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