Speaking in Perth to launch the Aluminium Industry Plan, AWU national secretary Paul Howes made the call.

“The aluminium industry is highly energy intensive. For example, energy costs represent around 20-30 per cent of the total running costs of aluminium smelters,” he said.

“That’s why access to competitively priced energy is so crucial to the future of the industry in this country,”

His stance echoed a call made by Dow Chemical late last year to keep the price of gas low to benefit manufacturers.

In an interview with EnergyNewsPremium earlier this year, Incitec Pivot spokesperson Stewart Murrihy said a serious conversation around the subject needed to be had.

“What we’re seeking is the government to have a look at the whole gas market both from a well to manufacture scope and look and how we can best benefit from that. I’ve also said that we don’t want to necessarily see restrictions on the gas companies because they’re investing lot of money, employing a lot of people … they have shareholders as we do,” he said.

“That being said there is a national interest in this. That’s why we believe the government needs to be involved.”

Howes’ latest call for a domestic gas reservation policy to be adopted has prompted the wrath of APPEA, saying that under such an arrangement, gas producers may call on steel manufacturers to provide cheaper products in support of cheap gas.

“This is an anti-market policy demand that would leave many of its industrial proponents aghast, were it ever to be applied to their own operations,” APPEA chief executive David Byers said.

“If taken to its logical conclusion, such an approach could see gas suppliers demanding laws forcing aluminium and steel manufacturers provide below-cost inputs to new gas-processing facilities and pipelines that are currently not commercial.”

This article first appeared in ILN's sister publication EnergyNewsBulletin.net.