Relieved workers and contractors in Whyalla say ousting GFG Alliance from the Whyalla Steelworks will breathe new life into the town

The people of Whyalla have celebrated the ousting of GFG Alliance from the town’s steelworks and claim the crisis-torn company's exit will "breathe new life" into the town.

Relieved workers and contractors in Whyalla say an unprecedented move by the State Government to oust GFG Alliance from the town’s Steelworks will breathe new life into the town.

The decision by Premier Peter Malinauskas to send the Sanjeev Gupta-run business into administration was cause for celebration across Whyalla following months of uncertainty for not only workers, but the wider community.

Managing director of Metric Consulting Engineers Jim Watson said the decision was welcome relief for the Whyalla community.

Top Guns: Tom Koutsantonis and Premier Peter Malinauskas land in Whyalla following today’s announcement. Picture: Tim Joy

“My wife and I whooped and high fived in the car, we are over the moon,” Mr Watson said.

“I feel like 25 tonnes have come off my shoulders with this news.

“The Premier has put his money where his mouth is.”

His company had to reduce its workforce from 17 full-time staff to five part timers in the last 12 months, before going into voluntary liquidation, after GFG cut all their contracts.

They are now working to buy back equipment from their liquidator in the hope they can secure contracts from a prospective buyer.

He said the focus was now to get the Steelworks into a condition where the new buyers can hit the ground running.

“There’s a lot of remediation work needed to make up for the lack of maintenance on the plant,” he said.

“It’s like an old car, if you don’t look after it it’s going to lose a few cylinders, so there’s a lot of work to happen to get the old girl back up and running.”

But the announcement wasn’t all good news for some workers at the Steelworks.

A longtime worker, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Advertiser the plant had been run to the ground.

Tim Wendland, a Whyalla local butcher farewells Sanjeev Gupta. Picture: Tim Joy

“We have run this plant into the ground so bad any minute now something catastrophic will happen,” the senior employee said.

“We have been on our last legs for a long time.

He said the company was in a much-worse position than when it went into administration in 2017.

He doubted whether the administrators would be able to find a suitable buyer for the Steelworks, with “hundreds of millions” needed to get it operational.

“Last time we went into administration the company had a seven-year younger plant and our Steelworks was breaking even,” he said.

But the situation hasn’t improved, with the worker saying that business is “extremely fragile.”

“We haven’t been making money in seven years, we have been losing $250m a year.

Local industrial dry cleaner Chrys Presser said workers were frustrated this didn’t happen sooner.

Premier Peter Malinauskas and Tom Koutsantonis landing in Whyalla. Picture: Tim Joy

“This all should’ve happened six months ago,” Mr Presser said.

“There’s still a lot to play out behind the scenes, but this just had to happen.

“It’s still going to be really hard as we’re all going to lose money again.

“We’ve got no other way out of it, the government got no other option than to act.”

He estimates that his business - Maaric Industrial Services - would have lost up to $60,000 in unpaid bills and lost work.

Local businesses were optimistic with the announcement, with Carve’N’Cut butcher Tim Wendland writing “Thank you Mali, Goodbye Mr Gupta” on a sign outside his Westland Shopping Centre store.

He said family-run businesses, like his, relied upon the Steelworks.

“Gupta just made so many empty promises, people need security and he just wasn’t offering it,” Mr Wendland said.

“We really need to keep workers and businesses here, as they are the lifeblood of the community.

Whyalla Steelworks are still worried, but there is optimism within the community. SA. Picture: Tim Joy

“We hope this is the start of something new and promising.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas and Minister for Energy and Mining Tom Koutsantonis flew into Whyalla on Wednesday evening for an emergency meeting with contractors who were owed thousands by GFG Energy at the Westland Hotel.

“We’ve got their back and it’s very good to be here, I can’t wait to speak to people on the ground.”

“We are always going to back Whyalla, of course we are,” Mr Koutsantonis added.

Local MP Eddie Hughes echoed their sentiment.

“This is a major circuit breaker, we could not continue in the direction that we were going with GFG,” Mr Hughes said.

“If we continued with them, all these contractors would have just gone to the wall.”

He said a new buyer of the Steelworks must ensure that local workers were a priority in the long term.

“We have got the capacity to build our future for local workers and their families,” he said.

“There’s been some important lessons learnt through what has happened with GFG, so we have to ensure that doesn’t happen again.”

Originally published as Relieved workers and contractors in Whyalla say ousting GFG Alliance from the Whyalla Steelworks will breathe new life into the town