Australia’s largest steel manufacturer offers to help Whyalla steelworks following onsite job losses

ABC NEWS (Australia)

More jobs have been lost in Whyalla with steelworks contractor Fenner Dunlop telling up to 20 staff that the local business is closing. Australia's biggest steel manufacturer has extended an offer of help to the embattled Whyalla steelworks.

Transcript

00:00Australia's largest steel manufacturer, offering a hand of support for Wyalla.

00:07We're a steelmaker, I understand the challenges of being a steelmaker and we stand ready to

00:13help if and when we're needed.

00:15The Premier on the weekend met on the sidelines of Live Golf with Blue Scope Steel's CEO Mark

00:20Vasella.

00:21Current Steelworks owner GFG owes tens of millions of dollars to private businesses

00:26and to the state government in the form of royalties.

00:29Any interest of Blue Scope in the Wyalla asset would have to be assessed at the time.

00:34I mean it's currently owned by someone else so it's hard to speculate on what the outcome

00:39for Wyalla might be.

00:41When asked about the possibility of a government or Blue Scope takeover of the Wyalla Steelworks,

00:46Mr Malinowski has indicated he'd prefer it to stay a private business.

00:50Governments can't have a hands off attitude but we have to be doing it in collaboration,

00:54having a hands on attitude in collaboration with the private sector.

00:58The opposition is calling for the government to give some relief to local creditors.

01:02What I would be more happy with is if the Premier came up with a way to get this $50

01:07million that is sitting there and parked and getting some of that into the pockets of contractors

01:12and small business operators.

01:14Mr Malinowski says that money is set aside for an investment in the transformation of

01:18the steelworks to create green steel and that creditors are owed money by Steelworks owner

01:23Sanjeev Gupta, not taxpayers.

01:25The opposition is also moving to introduce an upper house select committee to probe the

01:30government's proposed $600 million hydrogen project, which has been thrown into doubt

01:34amid the crisis at the Wyalla Steelworks.

01:37The proposal would need crossbench support.

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