SA: Boart Longyear to slash jobs in Adelaide

AAP General News (Australia)
12-11-2008
SA: Boart Longyear to slash jobs in Adelaide

By Larine Statham

ADELAIDE, Dec 11 AAP - Another round of job cuts at an Adelaide mining services provider
could signal trouble for an industry that was supposed to drive South Australia's economy,
union officials say.

The world's largest drilling company Boart Longyear on Thursday announced 67 jobs would
be scrapped at its Adelaide facility in the ongoing restructuring and consolidation of
its manufacturing operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

The cuts come after the US-based company axed 55 positions in Adelaide at the end of
October, blaming the global economic downturn.

Boart Longyear Asia-Pacific vice president Kent Hoots said the latest redundancies
would take effect in two stages next year, the first on March 31 and the second on April
30, and a small number of employees may be moved to other Boart Longyear locations.

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union metals organiser Derek Thomas said the mining
industry had been "painted as South Australia's saviour", but the Boart decision could
mean that workers and equipment would end up being sourced from overseas.

Mr Thomas said he was concerned that the union had not been briefed on the latest cuts.

"Irrespective of the numbers, the concerns that I have are based around the fact that
mining industry is supposed to be the boom industry for South Australia, and we have a
company which is employed at the pointy end of mining, and that is exploration, announcing
that they're going to reduce their presence in South Australia and Australia," Mr Thomas
said.

"My concern is, does Boart Longyear know something that the rest of us don't about
the expansion of the mining industry in South Australia, or is it that they're just trying
to increase their profits by importing the products they used to make here to supply the
mining industry.

"It means we could have our backyard dug out by imported workers with imported equipment,
and they're going to ship the raw material to be value-added in other countries ... and
then we buy it back for three times the price.

"There has got to be a local component in everything we do," he said.

Mr Hoots said Australia remained a key market for the company's products and drilling
services businesses.

He said the company had expanded its Australian workforce by more than 50 per cent
since 2005 to 1,400 and that a new facility being constructed in Perth, expected to be
completed in early 2010, would provide additional growth in the Asia-Pacific manufacturing
and services operations.

The manufacturing of consumable products and capital equipment will move from Adelaide
to other facilities, including those in Australia, but the South Australian city will
remain the company's administrative and other business support headquarters for the Asia-Pacific.

AAP lcs/mn/jl/bwl

KEYWORD: BOART SA

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