Troubled Whyalla steelworks to restart within a week – Koutsantonis

The South Australian Minister for Infrastructure and Transport, and Minister for Energy and Mining Tom Koutsantonis has held an ‘urgent meeting’ with operators of the troubled Whyalla steelworks, emerging confident that the blast furnace would be up and running within a week.

However Koutsantonis has ‘grave concerns’ about unpaid bills, according to media reports, with local supplier businesses complaining about lack of work and arrears on bills by the works, owned by Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance.

The company was ‘moving heaven and earth’ to get the blast furnace restarted the minister sais.

GFG has been in crisis in recent months with a world glut of steel caused by Chinese over-production, with the company forced to close some plants in Europe.

Meanwhile the Whyalla blast furnace has been in and out of operation since May when an uncontrolled iron breakout damaged the blast furnace, necessitating repairs.

During a recent tour of the steelwork, there appeared to be little work going on, other than repair work on the blast furnace.

The basic steelmaking, casting and rolling plants were all idle with only maintenance staff active.

Whyalla is Australia’s only producer of rail lines and sections used in major construction projects.

Further reading:
Whyalla steelworks idle following shutdown damage
Gupta says Whyalla blast furnace will start – again

Picture: Peter Roberts/Whyalla steel works blast furnace