00:00 The molten heart of South Australia's Steel City is offline and for nearly two months
00:07 experts have been working to restart Wyalas Blast furnace which has now been damaged during
00:13 that process.
00:14 This latest development has raised with the government grave concerns. We've reached out
00:19 we've said look if there's any international expert, any assistance that they need for
00:23 us to fly in and assist them, we'll do it.
00:25 In a statement GFG Alliance said the furnace shell was damaged during recovery work and
00:31 warned the repairs may delay the anticipated restart of steel making which was expected
00:36 within weeks.
00:37 The SA government is now sending its own independent experts to the plant.
00:41 To make sure that we get the answers that we want, this is a very very important part
00:46 of kit. We're not ready to transition to an electric arc furnace. This blast furnace needs
00:51 to survive.
00:52 The furnace is nearly 60 years old. Its life has been extended previously by costly relining,
00:58 a process which has happened three times, most recently in 2004. On Friday before the
01:04 damage occurred, ABC News asked GFG about the state it's now in.
01:09 The furnace condition is surprisingly good. We've had two external reports done in the
01:14 time that I've been there and both reports are quite positive in the furnace condition.
01:18 But with the site now facing a longer shutdown, the impact on workers may be significant.
01:23 1100 people are directly employed at the steelworks and many of them have already had their shifts
01:29 and pay reduced.
01:30 The question for us is to make sure that regular maintenance has been done, to make sure that
01:35 the money that needs to be invested has been invested.
01:38 We had the blast furnace shut down essentially in recent weeks and that puts thousands of
01:45 jobs at potential risk.
01:46 With no local steel rolling off the line, GFG says it's importing billet so it can keep
01:51 making some products to meet its customers' orders.
01:54 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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