00:00Waiala's blast furnace has been shut down for extended periods over the past 12 months,
00:08but both the Administrator, Korda Mentha, and the South Australian Government expect
00:12the shutdown scheduled for tomorrow will last for as little as 36 hours.
00:17The decision to stop production came as experts from Blue Scope Steel, who have been brought
00:21in as specialist advisors, recommended maintenance go ahead immediately.
00:27This is all good work that should have been done, should have been kept up with, hasn't
00:30been kept up with.
00:32It's pretty clear to me that these works now are a clear indication that the State Government
00:37stepped in at just the right time, otherwise it could have been catastrophic.
00:41Court documents seen by the ABC also revealed Korda Mentha believes the steelworks should
00:46remain under administration for up to another 12 months to get it running properly and ready
00:52for sale.
00:53It states the one steel business under GFG had a long period of underinvestment, inadequate
00:59or no maintenance, poor health and safety practices, and debts of $1.3 billion.
01:06With the business currently losing $1.5 million a day, Korda Mentha says it doesn't have sufficient
01:12funding to continue operations for the 12 months.
01:16Federal and State Governments have allocated $384 million to run the plant through the
01:21administration period, but Energy and Mining Minister Tom Coutts and Tonis is hopeful they
01:27won't need to add to that.
01:28If there needs to be top-ups, there will, but what we're keen to do is make sure that
01:32we can get a lot more revenue back into this system so that the administrator has the funds
01:37that they need to successfully execute a successful sale.
01:41While that's some reassurance for Wyala and the steelworks' 3,000 direct and associated
01:46workers, it appears the long road to recovery just got a little longer.
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