BHP mulls 3000 iron ore job cuts

More than 500 jobs have already been chopped from BHP’s iron ore division in recent months, including 100 from the resources giant’s iron ore headquarters in Perth as well as 170 positions made redundant at its Mt Whaleback mine in the Pilbara.

…Sources say significantly greater cuts are expected as a result of a broader review conducted by management consulting firm McKinsey and Company, which has been examining BHP’s iron ore business in detail.

McKinsey reports are understood to have recommended BHP shed up to 20 per cent of its WA workforce, or more than 3000 positions, in an effort to reduce costs to the level of major rival Rio Tinto on a per-tonne basis.

The 3000 includes the recent 500.

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About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.