The plant has not produced steel for two months now after its blast furnace went too cold during a two-day maintenance closure in mid-March.

The unplanned shutdown has forced many workers to take an effective 30 per cent pay cut while operator GFG Alliance tries to fix the problem.

The company then revealed last week that the external shell of the blast furnace had been damaged during attempts to get it back up to temperature, delaying the plant’s restart.

Australian Workers Union Whyalla and Eyre Peninsula branch organiser Shane Karger said GFG expects to repair the external shell by May 17 and have heat back in the furnace between May 26 and 29.

Karger, who said he was last briefed by the company on Monday, said the maintenance workers will then need to reconnect the furnace to the main taphole which takes liquid iron to the refinery. The furnace is currently connected to a smaller capacity emergency taphole.

“When we get useful metal out of the furnace, that’s the question,” Karger said.

“Because at this stage they’re still using the emergency taphole and they need to get back to the main taphole.

“Until that happens, it’s still a little bit unknown, but their… educated guess is that they’ll have useable metal by the end of June.”

Karger, who said his union has more than 300 members at the steelworks, said other parts of the plant would need to be restarted once the blast furnace was running again.

This includes the basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS) furnace where molten iron is refined into steel, and the section of the plant where the steel is cast.

“(The BOS) has been down for however many weeks now and that’s another section of the plant that prefers to be hot than cold,” Karger said.

“Useable iron is the first step, and hopefully we’ll have that by the end of June, but we’ve still got other areas that can bite us – we’ve just got to cross our fingers that the lads and lasses at the BOS have no issues firing up that section of the plant.

“And once we’re creating useable steel, or castable steel from the iron, we’ve then got to hope that the caster comes online.

Steel being produced at the Whyalla Steelworks in February 2024. Photo: Thomas Kelsall/InDaily

“Think of all of those bearings, hydraulics – everything is used to being hot. So we’re crossing our fingers that all of that comes online without a hiccup.”

The state government has also sought “further information” from GFG about its current maintenance regime for the blast furnace, Energy and Mining Minister Tom Koutsantonis said on Wednesday.

GFG declined to comment on the timeline to InDaily. The company’s owner, British industrialist Sanjeev Gupta, said in a video message on Wednesday that GFG is “very confident” the furnace will be restored “imminently”.

“The last couple of months have probably been amongst the most challenging for the team in Whyalla,” Gupta said.

“The blast furnace went down unexpectedly when we were doing some routine maintenance, and it’s been very difficult to bring it back.

“Everybody in Whyalla of course but all around GFG and indeed all of GFG’s friends from around the world have contributed to try and bring it back as soon as possible.”

Gupta said GFG has imported feedstock, billets and blooms to Whyalla to “de-risk the situation”. The company said last week the imports are so it can “satisfy orders through existing inventory and supplementary supply lines”.

GFG also revealed yesterday that the $500 million electric arc furnace (EAF) it has ordered for the Whyalla Steelworks will not be completed until 2027 – around two years later than previously flagged.

GFG initially planned to start construction on the furnace in 2021. Last year, it said the furnace would be constructed by 2025.

The company said on Wednesday that its subsidiary, Liberty Primary Metals Australia, is now “[finalising] the design of its integrated hydrogen DRI-EAF green steel plant in Whyalla, which is set to be operational by 2027”.

DRI (direct reduced ironmaking) is the energy-intensive process through which oxygen is removed from iron ore.

The steelworks currently use fossil fuels to power this process, but the state government is looking to sell state-owned hydrogen to the plant so it can decarbonise.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan told parliament on Wednesday that delays to the electric arc furnace would not impact the state government’s Hydrogen Jobs Plan, which includes construction of a $593 million hydrogen power plant in Whyalla.

“The Hydrogen Jobs Plan being delivered by the government is not contingent on an electric arc furnace being delivered at a point in time at the GFG steelmaking facility,” he said.

“There’s certainly an opportunity for offtake agreements to be reached with the government’s hydrogen production facility should industrial users want to use that hydrogen as a source of gas for decarbonising their operations.

“But that particular electric arc furnace project does not directly impact whether we will deliver the Hydrogen Jobs Plan or when we will deliver the hydrogen jobs plan.”

Premier Peter Malinauskas signing an agreement with GFG Alliance in February to explore hydrogen offtake agreements for the Whyalla Steelworks. Photo: Thomas Kelsall/InDaily

The federal government has granted GFG $63 million to help it acquire the $500 million electric arc furnace from Italian manufacturers Danielli. A further $50 million has been on the table from the state government since 2017.

Koutsantonis is currently in Italy, where he will today inspect progress on the electric furnace at Danielli’s facilities in Rome.

The Energy and Mining Minister said he was touring the facility because it is “important to have certainty” about GFG’s future plans.

“We are pleased GFG remains committed to building the new electric arc furnace,” Koutsantonis said in a statement.

“While the timing of completion is slightly later than previously flagged, it highlights the importance of getting the existing blast furnace repaired and back up and operation as quickly as possible.”