As long as our society is reliant upon steel and steel products steel will need to be produced. Key to
the steel making process is the processing of iron bearing ores into iron via the blast furnace process. Currently there are few reliable methods of ironmaking apart from the blast furnace process. The intention of this reline is to make the ironmaking process even cleaner and greener than it is now at Port Kembla. So if the public and private sectors do not support this project they can source their clean and green steel elsewhere? Or not?

RDA Illawarra supports the Blast Furnace 6 Reline Project as it will ensure the continued $6.5 billion annual economic contribution, which is 24% of our total regional output, that the Port Kembla Steel works makes to the NSW and Illawarra economies.

I believe will play a significant role in securing the ongoing economic position of the Illawarra by directly and indirectly employing 10000 people.

I also believe Bluescope is committed to ongoing improvements to reduce its environmental impact, setting targets inline with or above the international steelmaking industries averages. This is inclusive of assessing the potential construction, execution and operational impacts the 6 Blast Furnace may have on the environment.

The planned upgrades to the 6BF furnace outlined in the EIS document also demonstrate Bluescope's committment to feasible improvement of process in the short term, whilst maintaining the capability to adopt emerging GHG reduction technologies.

This project is key to maintaining Australia's steelmaking sovereignty.

I am an employee of BlueScope. I believe the project will be a significant benefit to the community and the nation. The project will allow continuity of employment and the retention of valuable skills in the workforce. The project will principally supply the local Australian market and will prevent the potential reliance on imported steel. I believe the proposed technology is world class, efficient and best available. Implementation of the project at this time should allow a transition to a hydrogen based technology when available.

From the looks of it, by reclining the blast furnace will create more jobs and also support other businesses directly or indirectly. Bluescope is looking for alternative way to improve the process by reducing the environmental impacts, so it is best to support their cause

Number 6 blast furnace is fundamental to the operation of the Port Kembla steelworks, both in the near term, and in providing a fundamental means to enable the transition of Port Kembla steelworks, and Australian steelmaking more generally, to zero-carbon steelmaking.
This is for a number of reasons. In its first campaign (1996 -2011), number 6 blast furnace operated at high productivity and low fuel rate (meaning relatively low greenhouse intensity), in fact it operated at higher productivity and lower fuel rate than the current number 5 blast furnace has achieved since 2011 - and 5 furnace is no slouch!
In addition, the relined number 6 furnace will have newer technology that will enable innovations crucial to zero steelmaking - like the use of hydrogen - to be tested, optimised, understood & implemented to progress the transition to zero emissions.
If the project were not to go ahead, not only would there be loss of jobs associated with construction, but it is likely that the steelworks would cease to be viable within a short time. This in turn would curtail the ability to transition to zero carbon steelmaking. It would also needlessly see steelmaking operations move offshore to locations whose greenhouse performance is inferior.
It makes more sense to convert Australian iron ore to steel in Australia than anywhere else on the planet. This is true from an economics/comparative advantage point of view, in an Australia that has the worlds cheapest energy and will have the worlds cheapest renewable energy. This is also true in the global context of pursuing zero greenhouse emissions: it makes environmental as well as economic sense.
The development of the Technology is not only about the technology itself, but about the "human capital" that develops it, enables it, implements it and keeps it running.
That takes years to develop, nurture and hand on to a younger generation, in steelmaking processes whose operating lives are measured in decades. As a Metallurgical Engineer who has proudly worked most of his professional life at the Port Kembla plant, and had the privilege of helping commission, and then operate, number 6 furnace I can speak from personal as well as professional experience. The "human capital" aspect also extends to the training and development of younger Engineers who often start as Cadets, and whose presence at the Port Kembla plant ensures the ongoing safe and improving operation of the plant, which secures thousands of jobs in the area. It also serves to underpin the research and Academic capability at the University of Wollongong. All of this would essentially cease if the 6-furnace reline project were not to go ahead.
Lastly I would add that from the point of view of being a crucial step on the path to zero emissions steelmaking, number 6 blast furnace is not only a state significant project, but a nationally significant project.

This project is fantastic for the illawarra. Jobs and a long term future for the steelworks.
We can't see steelmaking capability leave Australia.

Important project for the region, state and country.
Integral to the security of steel manufacture within Australia.

The Blast Furnace reline is important to the steel industry in Australia simply because the Blast Furnace 5 is on it's way out. By the time this second Blast furnace is finished we may have the technology for electric steel making.