{"id":892207,"date":"2026-09-14T23:22:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892207\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T23:22:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T23:22:20","slug":"whyalla-steelworks-blast-furnace-closure-brings-uncertainty-for-locals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892207\/","title":{"rendered":"Whyalla steelworks’ blast furnace closure brings uncertainty for locals"},"content":{"rendered":"

When speaking to residents and workers in Whyalla one word you’ll often hear is “resilient”.<\/p>\n

But as the government made the announcement that the local steelworks’ blast furnace is to close, a union official had another way to describe it.<\/p>\n

“I just use the term ‘stubbornly determined’,” AWU organiser Shane Karger said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve had a rough end of the stick for quite a few years now, you know just over 10 years and we’ve never given up. We’re still not going to give up.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shane Karger says steelworks employees are “stubbornly determined”. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The blast furnace closure hasn’t come as a surprise to locals \u2014 workers have been pushing against the odds to get the 60 year old plant back online since April.<\/p>\n

Mayor Phill Stone said it was a sad day for Whyalla, but it would allow people to move forward.<\/p>\n

“Our community, in some respects, will breathe a sigh of relief that this announcement has been made,” he said.<\/p>\n

“This is essential. There is no other way out other than to close the blast furnace and we as a council and the government and our community, I believe, will pull together to ensure the minimal impact on those that are going to suffer.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Phill Stone says the council, government and locals will “pull together”. (ABC News: James Wakelin)<\/p>\n

Australia’s largest manufacturer of structural steel<\/p>\n

The Whyalla steelworks is Australia’s biggest manufacturer of structural steel<\/a>, used for rail lines, bridges and industrial buildings.<\/p>\n

In a 2025 press conference, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it accounted for 75 per cent of Australia’s structural steel<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A vital part of the process is the now closed blast furnace \u2014 a coal fired oven, used to smelt iron ore, transforming it into pig iron that is ultimately used to make steel.<\/p>\n

The loss of it is the latest blow to an industrial city that’s become used to hard knocks.<\/p>\n

Whyalla began as a mining settlement at the turn of the 20th century, when BHP began mining nearby iron deposits.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

Whyalla began as a mining settlement, with the first blast furnace built in the late 1930s. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

In the late 1930s, the first blast furnace was built, and as Australia went to war, BHP added a shipyard.<\/p>\n

The shipyards saw Whyalla boom, and in 1976 it was South Australia’s biggest regional city with a population of 33,000 and a plan to expand to 100,000.<\/p>\n

But in 1978, the last ship was built in the city.<\/p>\n

The closure of the shipyards resulted in a rapid population decline, with current numbers down to just over 21,000.<\/p>\n

\"Black<\/p>\n

The blast furnace smelts iron ore, transforming it into pig iron that is ultimately used to make steel. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Whyalla steelworks city’s largest employer<\/p>\n

Despite the end of shipbuilding, the steelworks kept going, and is the city’s largest employer.<\/p>\n

But the steelworks has struggled through a decade of financial problems and uncertainty.<\/p>\n

In 2016, owner Arrium collapsed into voluntary administration.<\/p>\n

A saviour came in the form of British billionaire Sanjeev Gupta, who promised to keep local jobs and even add to them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

His pledge came with a projection of population growth to 80,000, as Mr Gupta said he would build a “next-gen mega steel plant” that would be one of the biggest in the world.<\/p>\n

But Mr Gupta’s global operations began to struggle following the collapse of his key lender Greensill capital.<\/p>\n

\"GFG<\/p>\n

Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance bought the steelworks after Arrium went into administration. (ABC News: Che Chorley)<\/p>\n

In 2025, the South Australian Government took the extraordinary step of forcing the steelworks into administration<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It was celebrated as a move to save the steelworks, with hopes it would turn the plant’s fortunes around.<\/p>\n

“Workers at the steelworks itself, they will now have their futures assured,” Premier Peter Malinauskas said at the time.<\/p>\n

“They’re in a situation now where they’re not going to wake up tomorrow and the administrator is making people redundant.”<\/p>\n

But the blast furnace closure will now reduce the workforce from 1,700 to 1,200.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Workers have been pushing against the odds to restart the aging blast furnace since April. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

There are two bidders to take over the steelworks, and the state government says that process remains on track despite the blast furnace closure.<\/p>\n

It’s expected the winner of that bidding process will be announced by the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Local businesses worried economy will suffer<\/p>\n

While union organisers and the Mayor are talking about resilience, with this latest blow, some locals are losing confidence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Whyalla cafe worker June Worsnop fears the job losses will hit the local economy. (ABC News: James Wakelin)<\/p>\n

Cafe worker June Worsnop said job losses would bring uncertainty to the local economy and residents.<\/p>\n

“Everyone is going to stop spending money, they’re going to be scared,” she said.<\/p>\n

“All this money they’ve put into the plant, what for?<\/p>\n

“I know this could be the crunch and if so, what, we’ll end up being a welfare town?”<\/p>\n

Darryl Durdin owns a local scaffolding business and said he’s now facing possible closure.<\/p>\n

“Here I am on the outside, looking in, I’m watching it implode,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Darryl Durdin says he will remain optimistic about the future of his business. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

But Mr Durdin is holding on to some hope, and said it was “possible” his business could hang on until a new buyer had taken over the steelworks.<\/p>\n

“If you lose hope, you’ve lost everything,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’m shrewd with my money, I never waste my money, things like that. You’ve just gotta do what you’ve gotta do to hang in there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When speaking to residents and workers in Whyalla one word you’ll often hear is “resilient”. But as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,6266,317897,73846,180,6827,44,9617,37158,81738,461947,24807],"class_list":["post-892207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bhp","tag-blast-furnace","tag-iron-ore","tag-jobs","tag-mining","tag-news","tag-redundancy","tag-steelmaking","tag-steelworks","tag-whyalla-blast-furnace","tag-whyalla-steelworks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=892207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}