British businessman Sanjeev Gupta has reportedly said Arrium’s Whyalla steelworks could expand capacity 10-fold, after his company, GFG Alliance, was announced as part of the joint venture which will acquire the struggling business.
The steelworks is one of the key rail manufacturing sites on the Australian mainland.
After touring the steelworks and meeting workers this week, Gupta reportedly told Fairfax he had high hopes for developing the site as soon as possible.
“Even our immediate, short-to-medium plans see us investing well over $1 billion here,” Gupta was quoted as saying.
“There are longer-term plans which could be far more grant in terms of steel capacity. This place has the infrastructure to be a substantial steel plant of several million tonnes. If we go from what we are today, it’s just a one million tonne plant. We see this at least being a 1.5 million tonne plant.
“Beyond that, the sky is the limit. You could see this being a five-to-ten million tonne plant in time.”
Gupta’s GFG Alliance is partnered with Liberty House in the $700 million acquisition of Arrium, which was approved by creditors last week.