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Government action called for to save Port Kembla steelworks

Monday marks seven weeks since August 24 - the day BlueScope CEO Paul O'Malley confirmed the company had to achieve $200 million in annual cost savings or the Port Kembla steelworks would close.

At the time, O'Malley said the NSW Government could help the company save about $30 million by reducing costs associated with payroll tax, among others.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Illawarra Gareth Ward said discussions with BlueScope were ongoing.

Employees endorsed a workplace agreement and accepted hundreds of job losses and restructuring of work practices.

Woes continue for Citic

Chinese miner Citic has been forced to inject $US3.1 billion of capital into its disastrous Sino Iron development in Western Australia, after writing $2.5 billion off the value of the project, according to the Australian Financial Review.

The ballooning cost of Sino Iron, which has now topped $12 billion, forced a bailout of Citic Pacific's balance sheet last year by the government-owned Citic Group.

LME copper inventories slide on Chinese hoarding

Chinese smelters are stashing away copper to sell later when prices are higher, leading to a draw down in inventories from other warehouses, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Stockpiles tracked by the London Metal Exchange are at a seven-month low and China's bonded warehouses reported a 22% drop last month.

While there’s no official data on the size of the smelters’ holdings, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Kenneth Hoffman said his analysis showed there was no overall increase in demand, so supplies were likely shifting to other storage facilities.