Regional Economic Impacts of a Closure of BlueScope Steel Operations in Port Kembla

The report takes the following form. Section one discusses the region and its economic context reviewing existing studies of steel production and restructure. It considers the employment impacts of previous downturns and places into context the current predicament. Section two outlines the impact analysis of the BlueScope Steel using the Input/Output model. Section three outlines the main findings from the analysis and concludes the report. The study comprises the local government areas of Wollongong, Shellharbour and Kiama. It also includes the areas of the Shoalhaven and Wingecarribee. This area is defined as the Illawarra region as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). This is referred to as “Illawarra” or “region” throughout the report.