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Managing Director's Overview
Alcoa of Australia ended 2010 in excellent shape, maintaining its place as one of the most profitable Alcoa regions and a critical contributor to the continued success of Alcoa Inc. The success of our business relies on both our financial and our sustainability performance. We achieved strong performance despite significant challenges in the Australian context, including uncertainty over carbon price legislation and a resources tax, energy security issues, rising production costs and currency impacts.
Throughout the year, it was crucial for us to stay agile and act decisively to deliver on our business priorities, the safety of employees and the sustainability of the business. Our goal is to improve our safety record until we achieve zero for our Lost Workday Incident Rate, Total Recordable Incident Rate, and All Injury Rate. We still have much work to do in this area and we will continue to invest in safety improvements through 2011 and beyond. During the year I was particularly proud of our roll out of over 200 fatality prevention projects across Australia, resulting in a record number of fatality risks being identified and eliminated in one year. We also introduced a wide range of safety programs, such as our ‘High Risk Task of the Day’, helping all locations to pinpoint our most pressing health and safety issues.
Two of our greatest challenges in 2010 were negotiating new workplace agreements with Western Australian employees represented by various unions, and securing new power contracts for the Victorian aluminium smelters.
The properties of aluminium – strong, lightweight and recyclable - can contribute to the sustainability of our planet and we believe we have a crucial role to play in providing sustainable products and managing our operations responsibly. We also recognise that our core business here in Australia – the mining, refining and processing of aluminium – is inherently energy, water and carbon-intensive. Whilst we tend to be more efficient than other operations in Australia, and around the world, we continue to seek ways of improving the environmental performance of our operations in line with Alcoa Inc.’s global sustainability targets.
Each year Alcoa of Australia makes a significant contribution to the nation’s economic and social prosperity. Our business provides crucial royalties, jobs, and community investment in regional Australia. Annually more than 75% of Alcoa of Australia’s total revenue stays in Australia through wages, local purchasing, taxes, capital investment and dividends to Australian shareholders.
Looking ahead we are keen to continue working with all our stakeholders on key issues facing both our industry and the community at large. These include achieving a competitive domestic gas market in Western Australia for industry and householders alike; striking the right balance with federal carbon pricing legislation to protect the competitiveness of Australian industry; and finding ways to ensure water security for our Western Australia operations as the drying trend in the state’s southwest continues.
We welcome input from all our stakeholders on this report and our sustainability performance. To provide feedback, please email alcoa.australia@alcoa.com.au.
Alan Cransberg
Managing Director
Alcoa of Australia
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