The new boss of Adbri, one of Australia’s biggest cement producers, warned the long-term future of the company’s ageing Birkenhead plant in Adelaide could be in jeopardy without changes to the federal government’s proposed safeguard mechanism.

Mark Irwin said on Tuesday that Adbri was in talks over the proposed hybrid baseline setting model which he said penalised facilities that had taken steps to reduce emissions compared with the operations of rivals.