I can't see how it helps the world, if Australia closes down its energy intensive industries and imports the products from overseas. It is just transferring the problem elsewhere. Perhaps we need to give up drinking so that less glass production is needed :)
Just a couple of points that were raised in the telephone conference and have been mentioned here. Penrice was described as energy intensive, trade exposed and thought to be eligible for the highest level of carbon credits if the carbon tax comes in.
The import cost of soda ash was said to be $280US a tonne and the Penrice production cost $230US so there seems to be a comfortable margin there against imports.
The CEO said that the capital expenditure on the soda ash plant was $7.5 to $8m a year. I think he said that they had planned to spend around that amount for five years in a row to try and stabilise the problem areas and make the plant more reliable.
They are continuing with the move to anthracite and away from coke to lower fuel costs and also continuing to work with coal seam gas companies on the extraction of soda ash from waste water. Who knows, the Solvay plant may one day be replaced with this method of producing soda ash - it would be a great saving of energy and carbon production.
GPASAS
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