Whyalla steelworks at crossroads as billionaire owner Sanjeev Gupta's green steel plan hinges on potential world firsts

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's steel industry is at a crossroads, with Whyalla's Liberty steelworks on the front line as its billionaire owner's pledge to be carbon neutral by 2030 sets it on an ambitious and risky path.

Transcript

00:00 I think that was our first big lesson in we can't rely completely on being a one company

00:08 town.

00:09 Wyala survived, but steel remained central to the city's fortunes, making it grist for

00:14 the political mill during the carbon tax debate.

00:18 Oh, Wyala wipe out there on my TV, shocking me right out of my brain.

00:24 It wasn't wiped out, but less than five years later, Steelworks owner Arium went into administration.

00:31 Every town talks about it's got resilience.

00:34 We've proved it over and over again.

00:35 We survive every time.

00:38 The former mayor and local Labor MP, Lyn Brewer, says the town has since diversified with a

00:43 rise in local renewable energy projects.

00:46 But the state government's promising to take that even further.

00:50 To not just change the future of Wyala, but to improve the future of our state.

00:56 It's pledged to spend more than half a billion dollars building a plant that will produce

01:01 hydrogen, which will be used to generate electricity.

01:05 It's the centrepiece of the state government's so-called state prosperity project, with a

01:10 major marketing push promising thousands of jobs.

01:15 Wesley Fisher says he has such confidence in the future of his community, he recently

01:20 bought a main street business.

01:22 But like a lot of locals, he's waiting for proof of the latest promises.

01:27 We're still hoping, yeah, yeah, but we do feel sometimes like we've been promised a

01:33 lot and then forgotten about.

01:36 That includes the 2018 so-called big reveal.

01:41 Mayor-owner Sanjeev Gupta promised to expand the steelworks into one of the largest in

01:45 the world.

01:46 That hasn't yet happened.

01:48 Other plans remain unfulfilled too, including a new foreshore hotel and a major horticulture

01:54 project.

01:55 Along with projections, the city's population would quadruple to 80,000.

02:01 We don't use the term anymore, big reveal.

02:03 If you were doing that again, you would do it vastly differently.

02:06 The key difference is that when it comes to the hydrogen jobs plan, the big one that is

02:11 the most imminent, we are not sitting around waiting for permission from anybody.

02:17 The hydrogen plant is due to start operating in 2026 and the government signed a preliminary

02:22 deal with the steelworks to supply hydrogen as part of its plans to make so-called green

02:28 iron and steel.

02:29 But questions remain about the steelworks following the collapse of Sanjeev Gupta's

02:34 company GFG's main financier and an ongoing fraud investigation into GFG in the UK.

02:41 The state government has made it clear its hydrogen facility isn't dependent on the plans

02:46 or fortunes of the local steelworks.

02:49 It'll generate power that feeds into the grid and if it can also provide hydrogen to manufacture

02:55 green iron and steel, well that's an added bonus.

02:59 For Wyler locals, that's a cause for optimism, but it's still being treated with caution.

03:06 People I talk to now that were sceptical are totally the opposite.

03:10 They do accept that change is happening.

03:13 It's going to be fantastic.

03:14 I think Wyler people are used to bouncing back and Wyler people are used to hearing

03:20 what's going to happen around the corner, what's just around the corner.

03:22 [BLANK_AUDIO]

Category

Transcript

Recommended