Existing industries
Gladstone is home to some of the largest and lowest cost mineral and metal producers and has a growing reputation as Australia’s economic powerhouse. A number of major international industries see Gladstone as the ideal location. These include:
* 
Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) – one of the largest alumina refineries in the world;
* Boyne Smelters Limited (BSL) – Australia’s largest aluminium smelter;
* Cement Australia (CA) – Australia’s largest manufacturer and distributor of cement;
* Orica Australia – the world’s largest industrial grade ammonium nitrate plant, a world scale sodium cyanide plant and a chloralkali plant
* Rio Tinto Alcan Yarwun – Alumina Refinery – the world’s first greenfield alumina refinery to be constructed since 1985
The Gladstone Ports Corporation Limited (GPC) is a long standing contributor to local, state and national economies, responsible for managing and operating Queensland’s largest multi commodity port – the Port of Gladstone. More than 30 products are handled via the Port of Gladstone and total port trade in 2009/10 was 83.4 million tonnes. Major cargoes include coal, alumina, aluminium and cement.
The Gladstone Region also has a well developed industry support sector providing engineering and supply services to the region. The services provided involve the maintenance of components, provision of equipment and spare part refurbishing, as well as the construciton of new equipment and facilities for these major manufacturing and minerals processing plants.