DBC Group Australia has participated as a local vendor for Bluescope Steel at the Port Kembla Steelworks for over 20 years. As a local employer I support the reline project and the jobs it will bring and sustain for our community. Particularly the skilled workforce it maintains in NSW. I also support the work Bluescope Steel has done and proposed in environmental improvements. I am also in support the plans to include a fabrication centre for wind farm components on site.
The project is a large investment in NSW and the future of steelmaking as a sovereign capability will rely on this project proceeding. I believe that steelmaking is of vital importance to the future of this country.

I have been indirectly employed as a worker for a local vendor for Bluescope Steel at the Port Kembla Steelworks for over 20 years. As a local worker I support the reline project and the jobs it will bring and sustain for our community. Particularly the skilled workforce this project maintains in NSW whilst we are experiencing a drain on skilled labour to other states. I also support the work Bluescope Steel has done and proposed in environmental improvements. I am also in support the plans to include a fabrication centre for wind farm components on site.
The project is a large investment in NSW and the future of steelmaking as a sovereign capability will rely on this project proceeding. I believe that steelmaking is of vital importance to the future of this country.

The project helps support the steelworks, hence manufacturing in Australia. This is important in the light of the increasing global pressures on supply chain and geopolitical reasons. Additionally, the project helps support jobs in the Illawarra and even parts of Sydney. I support the project.

As Managing Director of DBC Group Australia has participated as a local vendor for Bluescope Steel at the Port Kembla Steelworks since 1999. As a local employer I wholeheartedly support the reline project for the jobs it will bring and those it will sustain for our community. This major project is particularly important for the skilled workforce it will help to maintain in NSW. I also acknowledge and support the work Bluescope Steel has done and has proposed in environmental improvements for the project. The No 6 Blast Furnace Reline Project is a large investment in NSW and in the future of steelmaking as a sovereign capability. I believe that steelmaking is of vital importance to the future of this state and in turn this country.

The announcement of the No.6 Blast Furnace Reline project is an incredibly positive one for Wollongong, NSW and Australia. Having been raised, raised my family and lived in Wollongong for most of my life, I understand the importance of the steel industry to Wollongong and Australia. There are many benefits that an integrated steel manufacturing facility brings. Primarily the training and development for young people, direct high quality employment opportunities, the huge multiplier of BlueScope employees to externally supported jobs (something like four to one), the capital spend and the ongoing operational spend are key benefits that this project will deliver. Those who have worked in all parts of the plant at Port Kembla understand the engineering diversity that such a plant demands - from petrochemical plants, through turbo machinery and power generation, gas fractination, chemical engineer, high speed real time control systems, rail operations and heavy plant just to name a few. This is a very impressive operation run safely by a world class team.

In recent times, with the advent of COVID-19, the increasing influence of China and the war in Ukraine, the realisation of the importance of sovereign capability has been reinforced. Being the only primary flat products and plate producer in the country, there is national strategic value maintaining this significant steel making capability in this country, for defense alone (plate particularly) but also infrastructure and green energy projects. The reality is that there is no practical proven substitution for producing iron, except through utilisation of modern blast furnace technology. The currently operating No.5 Blast Furnace on the BlueScope Port Kembla plant will reach the end of it's operating life in the next 5 -8 years. There is little or no possibility that a viable low carbon ironmaking alternative will be available in this time. Therefore there is no alternative to relining a blast furnace to enable manufacturing to continue on this site for the next 20 years.
It is important to understand that, with this constraint in mind, BlueScope is implementing numerous carbon reduction processes with the relining and upgrade of the 6BF. In parallel BSL is investing money into pursuing "green steel" technologies that will likely replace blast furnaces during the second campaign lifetime of 6BF (following the completion of this project). The BSL engineers also need to solve the challenge of obtaining the required electricity supply and upgrading electricity infrastructure to provide possibly 14 times it's current usage, on top of production and storage of significant volumes of hydrogen. All this will take time and is only enabled by "green steel" technologies being proven viable and commercially competitive. My understanding is that only a total 100T of "green steel" has been produced to date, in the context that BSL current produces about 8,000T of steel every day at Port Kembla from iron sourced from a blast furnace.
In closing this is a vital project, not only for those of us who's careers and livelihood have and continue to be dependent, but also for the sovereign defense of the country. It will bring great benefit to the region. I wholeheartedly support the project and ask that it be approved without delay..

This project will ensure the employment of 10000 people and give opportunities to young people interested in the manufacturing industry within the Illawarra region.

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.