Industrial Energy | 200 jobs under threat, briquette maker warns

A LATROBE Valley company owned by brown-coal generator HRL has warned that the carbon tax will force it to close, with the loss of 200 jobs, unless the Gillard government injects enough compensation to keep the company alive.

With the government poised to release details of various taxpayer-funded assistance for industry, HRL subsidiary Industrial Energy announced yesterday it was reviewing its brown coal briquette manufacturing business, which directly or indirectly employs 200 people.

”With the introduction of the carbon tax … the future of Victoria’s only brown coal briquette manufacturer is expected to be unsustainable under a business-as-usual scenario,” general manager Tony Ferguson said.

The announcement comes amid negotiations between the government and five coal-fired generators over the ”contract for closure” program, under which the most carbon-intensive…

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