I have never claimed that. I have said in the past that more could be employed by tourism if your tourism authority was less chaotic, but in the current climate that seems unlikely. So where is all that pulp going if there is no paper mill? Lunacy!
The pulp mill has never been predicated on the wesley vale and burnie mills. At a combined tonnage og 150,000 tonnes per year, they's not consume 1% of the pulp mills capacity.
The pulp mill is based on the export price off pulp, so it can compete on the world market.
The worst part of the whole situation is that now we have 1 vegetable procesor, 2 milk major milk processors, one dying d-grade log processing facility (particle-board, MDF, HDF), and that's about it. Everything else is boutique scale.
But who in Australia is left producing actual paper? With the number of mills that have closed in the last 15 years it looks as though it is almost entirely being made from trees grown in Oz, sent across the world, then shipped back as usable products. And to me that is lunacy. Also unsustainable and likely to fall apart if anyone can get their act together with taxing carbon.
Maryvale is still making reflex, and a fair number of other grades. There's also Norske Skog in Albury (fine paper?) and Hobart (newsprint), and a few others, but you're right, most of it is imports.
At any rate, the pulp export market has never been greatly affected by the domestic. The tonnages are just too small.
European mills generally run on local stocks, and the south americans/asians have not yet managed to put in enough plantations to cover the reduction in old growth, so they're importing a fair bit.
The problem is that establishing industry in commodities in australia is too hard. Workers get paid too much, and the regulatory issues are just insane (and sometimes just plain contradictory).
Even with carbon taxing I reckon it'd be touch and go as to whether it became cost effective to produce locally. More likely it'd just kill off the pulp industry in tas, which the greens would love. Too bad for folk who work for a living and don't live in the city....
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The pulp mill has never been predicated on the wesley vale and burnie mills. At a combined tonnage og 150,000 tonnes per year, they's not consume 1% of the pulp mills capacity.
The pulp mill is based on the export price off pulp, so it can compete on the world market.
The worst part of the whole situation is that now we have 1 vegetable procesor, 2 milk major milk processors, one dying d-grade log processing facility (particle-board, MDF, HDF), and that's about it. Everything else is boutique scale.
Competition? Pah!
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At any rate, the pulp export market has never been greatly affected by the domestic. The tonnages are just too small.
European mills generally run on local stocks, and the south americans/asians have not yet managed to put in enough plantations to cover the reduction in old growth, so they're importing a fair bit.
The problem is that establishing industry in commodities in australia is too hard. Workers get paid too much, and the regulatory issues are just insane (and sometimes just plain contradictory).
Even with carbon taxing I reckon it'd be touch and go as to whether it became cost effective to produce locally. More likely it'd just kill off the pulp industry in tas, which the greens would love. Too bad for folk who work for a living and don't live in the city....
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Not knowing one of the parties, I was predicting "youtube like" detrioration. Well done chaps!
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