'Thrown under the bus': Aluminium sector upset after Govt rejected call for import protection
Our local aluminium sector says it's been left with no protection from a flood of cheaper imports from China.
Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Cameron Brewer has declined a request for safeguard measures to protect them.
Production has slowed down 40% in this country, and the sector says thousands of jobs in manufacturing and downstream businesses are at risk.
McKechnie Aluminium Managing Director Dave Slomp told Mike Hosking they’re seeing Chinese extrusion land in New Zealand for less than what local manufacturers pay for the raw bullet they make the extrusions out of.
He says MBIE, who Brewer took advice from, has got it badly wrong in a number of ways, but the little acknowledgement of the injury caused by pricing under the cost of raw materials is the biggest one.
“While we understand that ministers take advice from their officials, there’s no question in our mind that Mr Brewer has thrown a whole industry sector under the bus.”
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