Queensland Nickel should stay open: Palmer

It would be better to save Queensland Nickel than accept an administrators' recommendation to wind the company down, owner Clive Palmer says.

Embattled federal MP Clive Palmer says the Queensland Nickel administrators' report is a "beat up". (AAP) Source: AAP

It's in everyone's best interests to save Queensland Nickel and not have the north Queensland refinery shut down, owner Clive Palmer says.

Administrators FTI Consulting this week recommended the company's liquidation, given it had about $200 million in debts, including more than $70 million owed in entitlements to about 800 sacked workers.

"What we should be doing is trying to get the federal and state governments and company and the community working together to save the refinery and re-open it and keep everyone's jobs in north Queensland," he told ABC Radio.

"It really only needs a little bit of an upturn in the (nickel) price and it will be able to sustain north Queensland again."