Whyalla Steel Mill Has Fundamental Problems – Mr Saneev Gupta
The Guardian reported Whyalla steel mill in South Australia, things are decidedly grittier. The mill, which was among assets the British billionaire bought from failed company Arrium in 2017 for about $750m, is losing money and even Mr Saneev Gupta says it will require several years and hundreds of millions of dollars more before it turns a profit. He said “It’s sub scale and old technology, a tough steel market, these are all the ingredients for a problem.”
Whyalla itself, Gupta says, has fundamental problems. He said “It certainly clearly was in trouble when I first came to look at it. In fact the very first discussions I had, they were very unfortunate, they were really about the fact that, OK, if it is going to die, how long is it going to take and what do you do with a town that has no other business? I have invested hundreds of millions of dollars trying to change that. I don’t think it’s an easy answer … there is no thinking that you can wave a magic wand and you have a solution.”
OneSteel Manufacturing, the Gupta company which owns and operates the steel mill, lost AUD 195 million in the 2018 financial year, on top of a AUD 120 million loss the previous year.
Source : The Guardian