Mr O’Malley was announcing the company’s financial figures - highlighting a $136.3 million profit.

This was an increase of $218.7 million on the last financial year.

The company is working on plans for two options for the future of the steelworks. Option A features a $200 million cost reduction through to 2017.

This will include a loss of around 500 jobs at the steelworks, as well as salary freezes for executives and staff.

Option B would see the mothballing of the steelworks and the company importing steel.

Mr O’Malley said the company preferred Option A but, there was only a three-month window to achieve the necessary cuts.

‘‘Our objective is to maintain steelmaking at Port Kembla,’’ Mr O’Malley said.

He said they were up to the third ‘‘iteration’’ for achieving the cuts and was expecting to move to versions four and five in the coming months.

If the cuts weren’t in place by the annual general meeting in November, then the company would move to Option B ‘‘which is also being developed’’, Mr O’Malley said.

‘‘It’s a challenging time for us, it’s a challenging time for our employees and for the community,’’ Mr O’Malley said.

He said it wasn’t just workers who needed to act - state and federal governments had to offer assistance in the form of tax concessions.

‘‘There are also external stakeholders that have skin in the game,’’ Mr O’Malley said of the governments.

‘‘To keep the steelworks open, we need the support of everyone.’’

He said the next six to eight weeks would be crucial but that negotiations with the NSW government were progressing well.