Sinosteel Midwest, formed in 2008 when Sinosteel took over iron ore miner Midwest, said on Thursday it had stopped all major work at its Weld Range project, laid off 43 workers and closed its office in the port town of Geraldton. The company cited setbacks in the progress of the Oakajee Port and Rail project as the reason for its decision to “park” the project and said probable further delays beyond a recently revised completion date of 2015 would cost Sinosteel’s Australian unit A$100m per year.
中鋼中西礦業公司(Sinosteel Midwest)周四表示，它已停止澳大利亞Weld Range項目所有的重要工作，裁掉43名工人，同時關閉了位于港口城市杰拉爾頓的辦事處。中鋼中西是中鋼(Sinosteel)于2008年收購澳洲鐵礦石礦商中西部公司(Midwest)后成立的。中鋼中西指出，之所以決定“暫停”Weld Range項目，是因為Oakajee港口和鐵路項目進程受阻。它還表示，雖然不久前Oakajee項目的預計完成日期已推遲至2015年，但實際完成日期可能進一步延誤，這將導致它每年支出1億澳元。