Blast Furnace 6 Reline

The Number 6 Blast Furnace reline project supports 10,000 direct and indirect jobs in Wollongong using local contractors and suppliers. There will be upwards of 250 new jobs created during construction and the project is a $1 billion total project investment for BlueScope. The project will be completed in 3 years (by 2026) and BlueScope will spend over $100m in environmental improvement upgrades to prepare the business for green steelmaking in the future. This is an exciting and critical project for the Illawarra region.

The reline of No.6 Blast Furnace is critical to maintaining the sovereign manufacturing capability of steelmaking in Australia and supply to the domestic market for vital use in infrastructure, building and construction, defence and renewables projects.

I am supportive of this project for the economic and social benefits it will enable BlueScope to maintain in the Illawarra region. Furthermore, the Company has committed to making significant updates to minimise the environmental impact of the project, as well as making a series of other commitments to improve the overall sustainability of the Port Kembla Steelworks in its transition to low emissions steelmaking. Other reasons for supporting the project include:
• $1 Billion investment by BlueScope in the Illawarra region and state
• Ongoing support of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs during operation, plus an additional 250 jobs during the Project’s development and construction phases
• Significant economic contribution to the Illawarra region of $1.6 billion in Gross Regional Product (11%) and $6.5 billion of the regions total Output (Value Added)
• A commitment to ensuring environmentally sustainable steelmaking with over $100 million to be spent on environmental improvement upgrades
• Securing the short-medium term future of steelmaking at Port Kembla whilst providing a bridge to the longer-term transition to lower emissions steelmaking technologies when it is technically and commercially viable
• Maximum local participation throughout the development and construction phases, outsourcing contractors and suppliers from the Illawarra region

Thank you,
Amber Waldron

I'm a 43-year employee of BlueScope's Port Kembla Steelworks. I'm a firm believer in a positive future for the steel plant and am confident that my company has the ability and drive required to reline No6 Blast Furnace safely and efficiently - in a way that reduces our carbon footprint and makes use of leading-edge technology. I am a witness to this capability every day - engineering expertise that is important not only to our business, but Australia's sovereign capability as well. We need to tackle projects of this nature and scale to retain this capability within our country.

I am employed by BlueScope and am passionate about the future of steelmaking in the Illawarra region. The proposed $1 billion investment to reline and upgrade the No. 6 Blast Furnace reline project secures the short and medium-term future of steelmaking, including the 10,000 well paid and highly skilled jobs the steel industry in Port Kembla supports, whilst BlueScope continues invest in parallel to develop and pilot the new technology to ultimately transition to 'Green Steel' once it is commercially available at scale. This is great for the region and exciting for future generations. And I'm proud to play a small part in it.