NSW defers BlueScope payroll tax to save Port Kembla works
BlueScope Steel will pay $US720 million ($A996 million) to take full ownership of the prize North Star mill in the United States and said it plans to keep the fires burning at its troubled Port Kembla steelworks, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The steel maker has exercised its right of last refusal to acquire Cargill's 50% share in the North Star mill, which has a 380-strong workforce producing 2 million tonnes of steel a year in Delta, Ohio.
Compromises from its unions, the NSW government and other stakeholders had delivered the “game-changing” reduction in costs needed to keep its iconic Port Kembla steelworks open.
Metals X takeover offer rebuffed by Aditya Birla
Copper minnow Aditya Birla Minerals has come out blazing in its rejection of an $A82 million offer for the company from Perth-based miner Metals X, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The board of the copper miner broke a more than week-long silence on the all-scrip takeover offer on Monday, calling on shareholders to reject the “inadequate and highly conditional” hostile play.
APA Group eyes gas storage investment
Gas pipeline giant APA Group sees a new opportunity opening up in gas storage after being soundly beaten in the bidding for the Iona gas plant by Queensland Investment Corporation's $1.78 billion deal, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
The deal signalled to APA that players were willing to pay much higher prices to store the fuel.
