<\/p>\n
The owners of Australia\u2019s biggest aluminium smelter, including Rio Tinto Group, are set to receive a government bailout to keep the plant operating as it grapples with high energy costs, according to people familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n
After lengthy talks, majority owner Rio and its partners at the Tomago smelter in New South Wales will get financial support from both the federal and state governments, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions were private.<\/p>\n
An announcement is expected Thursday, including further details of the package and plans for the smelter\u2019s future, they said.<\/p>\n
Rio Tinto owns slightly more than half of the Tomago plant, which has produced aluminium for more than 40 years. Gove Aluminium Finance and Norsk Hydro ASA also hold stakes in the joint venture that operates the plant.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
Rio declined to comment, while the Tomago joint venture didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. The Australian government and the New South Wales state government also didn\u2019t respond immediately when contacted for comment.<\/p>\n
Higher energy prices have battered the power-intensive aluminium industry worldwide, triggering a wave of closures and cutbacks. Years of expansion in China, where smelters are subsidised and typically incur lower costs, have intensified global competition.<\/p>\n
Rio has previously said that electricity accounts for more than 40% of Tomago\u2019s operating costs. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pledged financial support during a visit to the plant in December, months after Rio warned that soaring energy costs could force it to close when an existing power-supply contract expires later this decade.<\/p>\n
ADVERTISEMENT:<\/p>\n
CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n
As part of any arrangement, the smelter\u2019s owners would spend at least A$1 billion ($706 million) on maintenance and upgrades, the government said in a statement at the time. Separately, in March, Rio secured A$2 billion in combined federal and state government funding for another Australian smelter, Boyne, in the state of Queensland.<\/p>\n
The company is not alone in securing Australian state funding: last year, the federal and respective state governments provided packages of support to Glencore Plc for its Mount Isa copper smelter and associated refinery, while Trafigura Group subsidiary Nyrstar Australia received funding for its Port Pirie lead smelter and Hobart zinc works.<\/p>\n
The Tomago bailout was first reported by the Australian Financial Review.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 Bloomberg<\/p>\n
#Rio #Tinto #aluminium #smelter #Australian #government #bailout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The owners of Australia\u2019s biggest aluminium smelter, including Rio Tinto Group, are set to receive…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[6418,1678,6242,2333,9389,3316,9390],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13422\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stock999.top\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}