Quote Originally Posted by Aaron View Post
It would be interesting if you had the time and could access financial statements for Tiwai Point to see if they are paying fair prices for their other inputs. Rio Tinto would be providing the Bauxite (I guess) I don't suppose they would be using transfer pricing to take profits offshore. What about debt, do they have any? is thin capitalisation an issue. I guess pointless now but if you had the time it would be interesting to know. I'm sure if that were the case someone would have brought it up by now while they debate the price of power.
The main thing that is completely of whack is the wage bill, and nobody ever wants to talk about it.

Those are highly paid jobs involving, arguably, not a whole bunch of skill or risk.

If you benchmark Tiwai Point internationally, it isn't the electricity that kills it - it is the wages. But it sounds better to blame evil power companies.