About 9:30am this morning there was an incident at the No. 5 Blast Furnace at the Port Kembla Steelworks.

Whilst we’re still determining the full details of the incident we are aware it engaged the bleeders at the Blast Furnace, which resulted in a loud bang followed by the sound of something like a jet engine for a few minutes. The bleeders, located at the top of the furnace, are designed to act like a pressure relief valve and did their job properly.  Whilst not common, this is a normal part of the safe operation of a Blast Furnace and there is nothing to be concerned about.

We can confirm there were no injuries and no need for emergency services to attend the site. There was some minor damage to equipment which will be repaired whilst we temporarily shut down the Blast Furnace before planning to restart production within 48 hours.