Bluescope's snags apparently are -labour input costs -economy of scale -obsolescent plant (labour intensive)
I realise Bluescope exports a very small amount of specialty steel to the USA under our FTA of which Trump tried to stymie over 2 years ago until Malcolm Turnbull ably pointed our the fine print in the Aus-US FTA.
Ultra modern mega Chinese steel smelters/mills are mostly autometed and specialise in particular forms of steel. This is now a capital intensive process rather than the older labour intensive methods. From memory ( you could correct me here) Bluescope employs about 6000 employees + contractors to turn our 5 mil T/P/A; that's about 830 T/P/A per worker or 2.27 T/P/D per worker . The Japs, Koreans & Chinese are multiples of this in labour input efficiency via scale, automation and by specialising.
By forming SEZs, Bluescope's economic challenges can be readily overcome as I have posted on ad-nauseam on SEZs over the past few months
SEZs are set apart from the rest of the country with the sole purpose of adding value to our raw exports (in this case iron ore & met coals) Apart from tax concessions , the SEZs can source guest labour from the cheapest overseas jurisdiction because there is no trade unionism within the SEZ (unlike your Bluescope) Of course all SEZs products have to be exported; otherwise, in this instance, it would be grossly unfair to Bluescope.
In the past all Governments could sell to the working classes was Jobs, Jobs & more Jobs because like mining, most of significant development in Aus is or transpires to be foreign owned. This is why it is imperative , IMO, that all businesses within SEZs are inalienable Aussie owned with the benefits being shared equitably bu all Aussies.
For example, the Saudi working class does not have an issue with predominantly guest labour supplying the Saudi Petro-Chemical industry because the average Saudi worker is exempt from income tax. Furthermore we defacto approve of the Saudi SEZ operation with its cheap guest labour because we have no objection to buying Saudi refined Diesel at our bowsers which is predominantly the product of this cheap guest labour!
