After a power outage thrust Portland’s aluminium smelter into crisis mode late last year, an almost unthinkable possibility hung over the community: the plant could close.
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Alcoa Portland metals manager Ron Jorgensen said the focus remained on recovery as workers grappled with damage from the outage coupled with uncertainty following the expiration of a 20-year power contract at the end of October 2016.
“There was an awful lot of terrible feeling in the community around ‘what would Portland be like without the aluminium smelter?’” Mr Jorgensen said.
“A lot of people felt quite disempowered and worried about their houses and property values, where would they go, what would happen to their family, what would happen to their kids.”
Last Thursday, there were smiles and cheers as Premier Daniel Andrews visited the smelter for the second time in almost nine months, marking its return to production capacity.
Early this year, the state government provided an undisclosed amount – believed to exceed $200 million – to secure the plant’s future, while the federal government gave $30 million to repair damage.
Mr Andrews told workers he was proud of their efforts to get the plant back on track.
Mr Jorgensen rushed back from a holiday in Japan after last year’s outage.
“We only had less than a third of our pots operating and we were in this quandary where we didn’t have a power deal and we (didn’t have) enough pots running to make the plant sustainable,” he said.
He described the “absolutely fantastic” feeling after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and the premier visited in January to announce the multi-million dollar assistance package.
“It means a lot to this community, and it’s a significant contribution,” Mr Jorgensen said.
“It’s also great for politicians to get out and see regional Australia and see what really goes on.
“It doesn’t all happen in the big cities. We make a strong contribution to the state’s economy and a strong contribution to the local community.”
Mr Jorgensen’s role helping the smelter through the crisis has landed him a plant manager role at another Alcoa aluminium smelter in the United States that faced similar issues.
After nine years at Portland and decades in the industry, Mr Jorgensen will take on the new role in Ferndale, Washington on December 1.
“I enjoy the people and I enjoy a challenge,” he said.
“You have to remain globally competitive if you want to stay in this game.”
