After weeks of working to bring its blast furnace back online, GFG Alliance is celebrating 2025’s first casting of steel at the $1.3 billion Whyalla operations in South Australia.
One of two major integrated steel projects in Australia, Whyalla rubs shoulders with the likes of industry giant BlueScope Steel’s Port Kembla operations south of Sydney.
GFG is in the process of transforming its current steelmaking operations at Whyalla into a green steel powerhouse, with the use of magnetite iron ore opening up the possibilities for low carbon steelmaking technologies.
The miner hit turbulence in August when sourcing coking coal became difficult, reaching out to Bluescope for assistance.
The plant idled for a few says in the interim, picking back up again once the coal shipment had been delivered and discharged.
Meanwhile, the site’s blast furnace has been out of action for four months to allow for repairs, today reaching its restart milestone.
“The blast furnace is currently running at half its capacity with a number of issues yet to be resolved,” GFG chief manufacturing officer Theuns Victor said in a statement, according to the ABC.
“Despite this I am very confident we will deliver the plant to stability and then to its full capacity, but this will take time and patience.”
Late last month, South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas backed the operation, declaring it would be a “national disaster” if the plant closed.
“It simply cannot be allowed to happen,” Malinauskas said in a statement, according to the Guardian.
“What workers at the Whyalla steelworks should have confidence in is that I do not believe this nation wants to see steel making capacity lost.”
GFG executive chair is confident in Whyalla’s future as a major supplier of steel to both domestic and global markets.
“Everything we build, every high-rise tower, every bridge, every structure with reinforced concrete, it has within it rebar steel,” he said.
“The only place in this country that’s capable of producing the key ingredients for rebar, domestically, is the Whyalla steelworks.”
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