The futures of Tomago Aluminium smelter and Liddell power station are under a cloud after the power station’s new owner, AGL, said both could shut in 2017.
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The announcement puts a cloud over an estimated 1200 jobs at Tomago and 250 at Liddell, with neither Tomago Aluminium nor the Australian Workers Union denying speculation over the threat.
It also raises the spectre of power price rises.
AGL and its main rival, the Chinese-owned EnergyAustralia, are both pushing to close ‘‘excess’’ generating capacity, claiming falling demand.
The shock news was disclosed to the stockmarket yesterday morning by AGL, which announced it had finalised the $1.5billion privatisation of Macquarie Generation and its Liddell and Bayswater power stations.
MacGen’s biggest customer is the Tomago smelter, which is owned by a consortium of Rio Tinto, CSR and Norwegian company Hydro.
