Clearly, high energy costs lie at the heart of the challenges facing Australia’s power-intensive heavy industries, which also face intense international competition.

The industry minister, Tim Ayres, on Tuesday pointed to “a very tough and volatile global trading environment in aluminium”, including “over-subsidisation in some markets, tariff responses in others”.

The west still doesn’t know how to counter China

Reeve said the lesson was that governments should be thinking harder about how to support the long-term viability of industries considered strategically important, beyond simply showering them in cash.

Agreed