THE TOWN THAT
SAVED ITSELF
Duration:
29.18
TX:
24/9/18
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Whyalla Gupta |
Hello I’m Alan Kohler. Tonight, a
business story with a difference. Two
years ago the South Australian town of Whyalla
was teetering on the edge of survival in the steel works, as the centre of
the town’s economy went bust. But workers voted for a radical plan to save
their community, and were rewarded when an unlikely saviour
arrived out of nowhere, to breathe new life into the town. This is Whyalla’s story. |
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(all Australian Story footage except where
marked) |
(few secs of music) STEPHEN
STANLEY, CARTOONIST, WHYALLA NEWS: The slogan for Whyalla always used to be,
‘where the outback meets the sea’… …You’ve got the saltbush left and right… …and all of a sudden
you see in the distance some smokestacks and you think, that’s rather
strange, there’s all these smokestacks in the middle of nowhere and you get a
bit closer again and you come up against the steelworks. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR, KordaMentha: A steel plant that looked like it was born in
a Charles Dickens novel… Set in England in the 1850s. LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: But because I know what’s actually
going on in those big sheds, I know it’s the heart and the soul of our
town. It’s the lifeline. (100%) |
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(TEASE) If the steelworks …There is no other industry in this town that
hires that many people. STEPHEN
STANLEY, WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: We’re
a one company town… …If the steelworks sneezes, Whyalla catches a
cold. Two years ago, the steelworks
got a coronary. PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: When Mr Gupta arrived here… …I think the business community in Australia
thought, “this is a man who’s arrived from another planet.” SANJEEV
GUPTA: For me I found what I regard as a diamond in
the rough… …I would say that Whyalla is a town that
saved itself.
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STORY TITLE:
The town that saved itself. |
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“Saltbush to steel” corporate documentary,
Liberty OneSteel BOF RIGHT SUPER: Stephen Stanley, Cartoonist, Whyalla News @ 3.01 “Saltbush to Steel” 11.56 BOF LEFT SUPER: Larisa White, engineer @ 3.51 |
(1960s documentary with fruity voiced
announcer) “Whyalla is
Australia’s newest integrated steelworks.
The plant uses the world’s most modern technique of steel making,
known as the basic oxygen steel process…”
STEPHEN
STANLEY, WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: At the time of World War Two… …the government built a blast furnace in
Whyalla, and then decided they would build ships here. …and after the war the blast furnace was
expanded to a fully functional steelworks… and the
resulting scream is symbolic of the jet age of steelmaking …The steelworks boomed… If you go to an office block or a huge
carpark or something, that’s Whyalla’s steel there usually. And rail tracks.
(old doco) “Where once
only wallabies roamed the salt bush plains, families – thousands of them –
now call this place home.” Larisa
White: So
what did you say your grandpa used to do out of the company, mum? Larisa’s
mum: He got his apprenticeship as a veteran turner and both of his brothers
got their apprenticeship with the company as well LARISA
WHITE, STEELWORKER: Steel is definitely in my blood… …My great grandfather worked for the company
at the shipyards… Dylan White:
Alright I’m off. Going to work. Larisa
White: Alright to do you want me to put some food in a container for you? …My grandfather… …My father works for the company… …and I even met my partner Dylan at the steel
works… Dylan White:
See youse all later?
(more of Larisa at work) I actually started as a secretary… …and my boss came to me and said, ‘You’re too
smart to just be a secretary. I think
you should go for one of these cadetships and study engineering… …So I graduated with a degree of
metallurgical engineering with honours. So I’ve been rocking a hard hat and the high
viz for 10 years. So every day I put
on that uniform with a sense of pride that I’m gonna go to work and I’m gonna
make steel… (100%) for Australia. It’s amazing! If you think about it like that, it’s
amazing. Larisa:
What’s the update Phil? When are we going to start charging mate? Colleague:
About 12’O’clock, should be up to temperature around midday |
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TOF SUPER: February 2016 @ 4.57 BOF LEFT SUPER: Professor Roy Green, UTS, Sydney @ 5.21 |
(more of Larisa at work) I got the sense that things weren’t going so
well with the company in early 2016… …We had another round of redundancies and it
was savage… …And we’re all sort of looking at each other
going, ‘what’s going on?’ (local Whyalla TV news report) “6 months
into the financial new year, and Arrium continues to struggle with low steel
and commodity prices.”
PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: The company that ran the Whyalla steelworks
was called Arrium, and it was getting into trouble… …because… …the world… …was moving on from commodity steel to
premium products, to specialised steel. But Arrium was tied into a business
model that was being superseded. LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: They essentially made a whole shift of people
redundant… …and on the fence of the carpark, they’d all
hung their helmets up on the fence as a…goodbye… …I saw that and I just, in my heart, I felt so
upset for those people who have just lost their livelihood, because of the
state that the company was in. |
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BOF LEFT SUPER: Stuart Monroe, steelworker @ 6.36 |
(Stuart Monroe drives through the steelworks
gate in the dark, along with dozens of others arriving for work. Few secs of fx…) STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: I work with 50 different guys. I know all their names… …They’re your second family… …Whyalla’s one of those communities where,
if… …somebody’s damaged… …they band together… …Everyone’s involved with sport, you’ve got
the churches, there’s Rotary clubs… …it’s a very tight knit community. Stuart
Monroe: 121.7…77.3…3.3… seeya (few secs of Stuart at work) The steelworks has always been a fairly solid
rock… …It started with a little bit of pressure
from management coming to us and saying that we needed to cut costs… Stuart
Monroe: Yeah can you check that the thermocouples are plugged into the
turnditch please …Basically the ultimatum was that we were
losing too much money, and if we can’t stop that haemorrhage, that we were
facing closure everybody was doing their best. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere,
overnight, we were in administration. |
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Southern Cross news BOF LEFT SUPER: Larisa White, engineer @ 7:03 BOF LEFT SUPER: Mark Mentha, Administrator, KordaMentha @ 8.02 |
(local Whyalla news report) “Arrium announced this morning that the
company is going into receivership, saying all other options had been
exhausted.”
(7)5.53 LARISA
WHITE, STEELWORKER: And it was kind of, you know ‘is this
real? Are you serious? Like can that
happen? You know a big company as big
as ours, are we in voluntary administration?’ STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: It’s not one of those things you want to come
home and say to your wife, ‘Hey, how was your day? Good?
By the way, our property value has just diminished within a heartbeat,
and I might not have a job anymore.
What’s for tea?’ MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: I was one of the four administrators of the
Arrium Group… …My personal reaction to looking at the books
and records with my team was ‘oh gee, this business is very challenged… …There was a high probability that the
previous management prior to the administrators were looking to close
Whyalla… So this was as scary as it gets when it comes
to, you know, an administration process. The Arrium administration is probably the
most complex administration Korda Mentha’s ever done, and probably the most
complex in terms of Australian corporate history. Six thousand employees, four billion of
debt… …a business that had 70 percent of the
Australian structural steel market could disappear overnight. But when you
look into the eyes of the employees, that’s where you see the vulnerability
and the fear. |
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(Larisa at supermarket with two small kids,
few secs of fx) Larisa
White: We need to grab some tiny teddies. Are you going to grab them for mum? LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: Two weeks after the administration was
announced, I found out I was pregnant… …If we knew that the company was going into
administration, we definitely would not have made the decision to have
another baby at that time… …I was very worried that I was gonna lose my
job. (few secs of fx in supermarket) Larisa White:
yeah it’s a bubba Our worst fear was that the plant was gonna
shut down… …That would be the end of the town. It’d be the end of life as I know it… Jared you
need to open up your ears and listen …We didn’t want to leave Whyalla. This is our home, and this is where our
family and friends are, and our house is. We didn’t want to leave, and it was
gonna come to that. |
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BOF LEFT SUPER: Stuart Monroe, steelworker @ 9.51 |
(Stuart Monroe coaching his son’s football
team, few secs of fx) Make sure
we’re looking at the ball before we pick it up, righto… STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: My worst fear was that I was gonna have to
chase work, possibly in another state, and not be a part of the family, and
the family was gonna be stuck in a community, in a city, where I’m not even
sure whether the schools were still gonna run. There was the possibility of a mass exodus. (few secs of Stuart coaching team) Lead out
eggy.. lead out.. If the steel work had shut I would have been
left with a block of dirt that I couldn’t pay for, with a house on it. Unless
I found gainful employment somewhere else, I wasn’t going to be able to pay
the bank back. And the bank, I guarantee the bank didn’t want my property, because
they would have had 30 thousand others as well. |
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BOF RIGHT SUPER: Stephen Stanley, Cartoonist, Whyalla News @ 10.21 |
(Cartoonist draws cartoon replacing the logo
“Where the outback meets the sea” with “where the steelworks used to be.” STEPHEN
STANLEY, WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: And people in town, just stopped buying
things… …And then of course you get that ripple
effect through the whole community… …the housing market crashed… …People couldn’t leave, because they couldn’t
sell their houses… …Businesses went broke. And it was just
massively horrible for the whole town. |
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Southern Cross news BOF LEFT SUPER: Mark Mentha, Administrator, KordaMentha @ 10:54 Southern Cross News Southern Cross News ABC News TOF SUPER: August 2016 @ 12.46 TOF SUPER: September 2016 @ 13.07 |
(local Whyalla TV News report) “Whyalla is
fast becoming Mark Mentha’s home away from home.” MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: Well I’m a country boy and when I walk into a
town like Whyalla, it just resonates with country values… …You know it has six football teams, and six
soccer teams, and six schools, and six pubs… …It became very obvious that this town, this
great community of Whyalla, wanted to save itself. ‘Save our
steel, save our steel…” Everyone had to play their part. The first people we spoke to were the
contractors… …We looked at government and what they could
do… …We then went to employees… …So we were trying to stabilise the business, in a spectrum that would allow it to continue
as a profitable going concern. (Stuart Monroe at staff meeting discussing
cost cutting, few secs of fx) ‘So we did
the whip around all four shifts to see if we could come up with some cost
saving initiatives…” STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER And they approached everybody, from the
coalface to the top of the ladder, to get some ideas on anything we could do
to reduce the cost of making steel, to try and get close to making a profit
to make it a saleable company.
(actuality from staff meeting…) There is
money to be saved from reducing the amount of no changes we do… I’m also a delegate for the Australian
Workers Union… …I was in a position where I can throw my
hands in the air and sulk and wait for the outcome, or I can throw myself at
it with everything I’ve got and contribute wherever I can. Which is what I chose to do.
(few more secs of discussion) That’s fine
we will save all of that money, we are going to take 20 million dollars from
your agency MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: We put a ten percent wage reduction to the
employees… …Set against the backdrop of where their
house prices have halved… …the reaction was incredibly hostile. (worker at meeting) “If I’ve got
ten percent less money in my pocket at the end of the week, I’m not going to
buy coffees at the coffee shop or whatever.” MARK MENTHA
ADMINISTRATOR: They were bloody, they were personal, they
were emotional, and they were probably one of the most difficult things I’ve
ever had to do. STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: You’d have guys standing up at the meetings
going, “You know, you can take your pay cut and stick it up your arse.”
(Angry worker in Whyalla local TV news story) “You said to
the guys on the shop floor, ‘you should not be penalised for the sins of
management…. Big roundabout turn, isn’t it!” STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: And it came round to a vote… …and the pay cut got voted down. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: And I’ve got to say I was devastated. (Mentha on local TV News) “It’s a real
difficulty before us to sell the business with an expired enterprise
agreement.”
So while we were negotiating… …South Australia had a catastrophic weather
event… …The lights went out, the phones went down,
and all hell broke loose.
(new upsot) “For the first time in the history of the national energy market, an
entire state was plunged into darkness.” (Larisa drives through steelworks, few secs
of fx) LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: It was like the apocalypse… …There was no noise, no hum… …and I was driving through thinking, ‘this is
what it’s gonna be like if we close down. This is it. This is what the plant’s gonna be like.’ (Mark Mentha at steelworks…) MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: We had a pipeline, which
is really the artery of the business…which is the slurry that comes from
the iron ore mine to the pellet plant that feeds the blast furnace. It
has the consistency of a toothpaste. If that
solidified, the blood stops flowing to the blast furnace, and it only needed
about another six hours and it would have, and we would have had to re-lay 60
miles of pipeline at a cost which basically would have meant we would have
closed that operation the next day.
(few secs of music over shot of empty
steelworks)
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BOF LEFT SUPER: Mark Mentha, Administrator, KordaMentha @ 15:25 BOF RIGHT SUPER: Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman, GFG Alliance @
15.48 BOF LEFT SUPER: Stuart Monroe, steelworker @ 16.22 BOF LEFT SUPER: Larisa White, engineer @ 16.33 |
(drone shot of steelworks?) Got your 12
meter mark… there to the first roll under the bed STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: And I think that may have contributed a
little bit as far as being a wake-up call to, hey… …how serious the situation is, how dire it
is… …and yeah, we went to another vote. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: So the fundamental message, was ‘you have to
do this to save yourself.’ STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: So reluctantly I voted yes, knowing that it
was going to be the only way that we were going to get through or have a
chance of getting through... …The second time round it got voted up and we
basically agreed to a ten percent pay cut (Larisa at work, few secs of fx) LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: My dad was against the pay cuts and he would
have voted no, but mum said that he decided to vote yes, because he wanted me
to have a future… And because I had the understanding of why it had to happen,
I supported the pay cut. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: There was 400 management that also… went and
gave a pay reduction. There was
contractors… …There was suppliers… … So everyone contributed. (few secs of fx) So the cost savings initiatives, you know,
was put into an information memorandum that was sent out globally to over 70
perspective buyers. SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: When Arrium got into trouble and I saw it was
up for sale, I saw that as a very exciting opportunity… …Australia’s always been very puzzling for
me. It’s a country blessed with every
natural resource you can think of, but yet it produces nothing. It exports all its raw materials. And nothing more stark as an example than
steel. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: We looked at the buyers… and culled them
down… ultimately to two. So on the one
hand we had the GFC Group with Sanjeev Gupta as its executive chairman, and
on the other hand we had a private equity Posco consortium from South Korea. STEPHEN
STANLEY, WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: No-one had ever heard of Sanjeev Gupta before
this. Why would we?... …He’s a mystery man, really.
STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: ‘Everybody – Google ‘Sanjeev Gupta’ or what
he’s done, what he’s worth, how’s he gonna do this?’ LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: And that’s when I sort of read up on Sanjeev,
and I found out he was a pretty amazing guy, and he had a real vision for
steel making.
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Liberty OneSteel corporate video TOF SUPER: Newport, United Kingdom @ 16.45 BOF LEFT SUPER: Professor Roy Green, UTS, Sydney @ 17.00 https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=
industrial +cadets+awards+prince+of+wales+speech Crowd
shots on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0NvPu6ISdM BOF RIGHT SUPER: John Collingridge, Sunday Times, UK @ 18.02 |
(Gupta corporate video from UK) “Welcome
everybody to Liberty Steel Newport.
It’s a proud day for us today as we start production. Let me show you around.” PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: The name Sanjeev Gupta was most prominently
associated with the intervention in Newport, in the steel plant there which,
like Whyalla, was on its knees… …Along came this extraordinary entrepreneur,
who told them there is a future in the Welsh steel industry. SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: There was not a single meeting I would walk
into, people would look at me and say, asking me literally “Are you
crazy? Why would you buy a steel industry
in Britain?’ That was like, you know completely, it was regarded to be
completely nuts.
(Newport steel worker) “He hasn’t
made any of us redundant and throughout the country, whenever he’s bought
anything, nobody has been made redundant.”
PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: But he invested… …What has happened there is an unalloyed
success… Is that entirely due to the vision of one
man? Well in this case, I think you’ve
got to say to a large extent, it is. PRINCE
CHARLES SPEECH: “I must also pay particular tribute to
Sanjeev Gupta… …Sanjeev is doing so much to apply real
imagination, innovative thinking and sustainable rejuvenation to our nation’s
heavy industry.” JOHN
COLLINGRRIDGE, UK SUNDAY TIMES: Sanjeev in many ways is a fantastic story for
journalists, he’s got a great back story, he’s developed a business in a very
short space of time, buying fantastic assets in the UK, certainly very big
assets and totemic assets.
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Family photos from Sanjeev Gupta. Bike factory photo from Google. Gupta
15.17
15.42
1.26.53
1.27.08 Larisa
5.55.42 Stuart Monroe 1.27.36
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SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: I was born in Punjab, which is in the
northwest part of India… …It’s a
business family for generations… …So when I was
growing up, steel and bicycles were the two businesses the family was in. … (few secs of photos and music) (3)17.12 And then when I was in the end of ninth
grade, I moved to the UK… …I’m just starting university, I decided then
to form my own company, that’s when I formed Liberty… …And actually it came to a point where I
registered all my telephones, fax machines, telex machines… …at the university address. And then the university found out. I didn’t know you’re not supposed to run a
business out of there… So I got Deaned, as they say, which is like,
sort of when you’re called in, you know, when you’re being naughty. (Gupta inside corporate jet? Few secs of fx) I had to go and get an apartment nearby… …and it just grew and grew and grew from
there… …We’re about three billion net assets… …thirty odd countries where we have
operations.
(few secs of chat on plane) LARISA
WHITE, STEELWORKER: So there was a bit of excitement about
Sanjeev bidding for our steel works.
STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: My personal feeling was I was hoping that it
was going to be him, just given his track record. |
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(Sanjeev at lookout over Whyalla, few secs of
fx)
(3)18.08 SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: The clincher was when I went to Whyalla… …What I didn’t know was that this hidden gem
was sitting there …Everything was there… …It has amazing infrastructure… …the port which has been built, the airport,
the town, the housing, everything has been built to be a much bigger steel
plant. (few secs of fx) And yet it was a complete failure… It was
supposed to be shut… Nobody was talking about how do we make this
work, can it work? It was a foregone
that it can’t work. |
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(Gupta inspects steelworks and talks to
workers, few secs of fx) To bring the
steel down, so you’ve got to create the seal and then you create the vacuum STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: He asked if he could meet up with some union
organisers… …I was lucky enough to be one of the guys
that was there for that meeting. (few secs of fx) Natasha has
just started at the company and her father is also working here… ok SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: I was particularly moved by the fact that the
workers had taken a pay cut, voluntarily… …It was an amazing sacrifice, showed the
desire of this community and these people, they weren’t going to let this go… …And that gave me confidence that if I bought
this business, I would have a great force behind me to turn it round. |
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ABC News archive BOF RIGHT SUPER: Stephen Stanley, cartoonist, Whyalla News @ 20.44 TOF SUPER: Newport, United Kingdom @ 21.01 Southern Cross News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXYAG5Sgz4&t= and Southern Cross News>Sept>Arrium and https://www.facebook.com/AustralianWorkersUnion/videos /10155579927301411/ BOF RIGHT SUPER: Sanjeev Gupta, Executive Chairman, GFG Alliance @
20.15 Liberty OneSteel corporate video |
(ABC News) “Whyalla’s
steelworks has a new owner, British
billionaire Sanjeev Gupta is promising more than a billion dollars of
investment in the business…” STEPHEN STANLEY,
WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: You could almost hear the great sigh of
relief going through Whyalla.
Someone’s bought the place.
It’s not going to close. It’s
actually got a future. LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: I was ecstatic. It was so exciting. It was a weight off my shoulders SANJEEV
GUPTA (ON LOCAL NEWS) “For the first 100 days, I have taken the
helm myself, so I will be CEO for these first 100 days MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: It was a landmark day for Whyalla… …and they came out and marched on the streets
as a sign of saying, ‘thankyou.’ It was probably one of the most satisfying
days in my working career. (few secs of actuality from march)
STEPHEN
STANLEY, WHYALLA NEWS CARTOONIST: And there was Mr Gupta in the middle of it,
with his whole family, the wife and kids… …We thought, maybe we should rename the town
Guptaville… …’cause he saved the steelworks, he saved all
the jobs in Whyalla. SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: They saw death very close. They came very very close to
extinction. (Gupta actuality from march) “This is the spirit of Whyalla which allowed
this town and this steelworks to survive the dark days.” I was definitely being adopted by Whyalla,
there’s no question about that. When I bought that business, the town adopted
me. It became my town.
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BOF LEFT SUPER: Mark Mentha, Administrator, KordaMentha @ 22:11 BOF LEFT SUPER: Larisa White, engineer @ 22.20 |
(Mayor welcomes Gupta to Council Chambers) “Sanjeev Gupta, he keeps getting described as
the saviour of Whyalla, saviour of our city… …But you know it actually is an apt
description to give him.” SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: I don’t like or want titles like ‘saviour’
and so on… …They saved themselves because it wouldn’t
have been there… …If it hadn’t been for their persistence,
their unwillingness to give up… …They probably would have shut. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISRATOR: They knew, and they know today, by going
through that process they actually saved the steelworks and the iron ore
mines, and probably Whyalla in the process. LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: If there are other towns that are in a
similar situation as we were, then I think it’s definitely something they
have to think about. |
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BOF LEFT SUPER: Nicola Gupta, wife @ 23.05 |
(party on lawns of Gupta’s Sydney home, few
secs of fx) (3) 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6…. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: Sanjeev… …He saw the enormity of the task ahead of him
here in Australia, so he moved his family to Australia, and is running his
global operations from here. It’s
pretty unique in a global entrepreneur.
SANJEEV GUPTA,
BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: This is my home in Sydney, and yesterday we
completed our first anniversary today in Australia, so today we are
celebrating that with all our staff and all the children actually… (see Sanjeev and wife with their kids…) NICOLA
GUPTA, WIFE Oh it was a huge, huge surprise to learn that
we were moving to Sydney… …We went out on a four week holiday, and he
said, “I don’t think we should go back.” (100%) And I said, you know, “Are you crazy? How the hell do you expect me to, you know,
move a whole family?” (few secs of party/playing with kids) SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: The business we bought is spread across the
whole country, all of Australia… …And Sydney is course the head office… … and me travelling around the country, to
all the locations but mainly of course focussed on Whyalla. It is, for me, my spiritual home and the
spiritual home of steel in Australia. |
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TOF SUPER: August, 2018 @ 24.14 ABC SA News
15 Aug 2018
BOF LEFT SUPER: Professor Roy Green, UTS, Sydney @ 24.34 |
(Gupta watches steel making at Whyalla
steelworks. Few secs of fx) SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: We have multiple plans in Whyalla… …We will go from one million tonnes to two
million tonnes in terms of steel production, but it won’t just be about
adding capacity, it’s also upgrading the plant, making much more, much higher
value added steel. (few secs of fx) The part 2 is then to launch a new steel
plant, our world scale steel plant, maybe a 10 million tonne steel plant… …and it would be the first major… investment
Australia has seen for decades in the industry… It’s a huge, huge legacy, and it will put
Australia on the map in terms of steel.
1, 2, 3, go (ABC news report) “The British
billionaire who stepped in to save the Whyalla steelworks has announced a
one-billion dollar cash splash on renewable energy projects in the local
region.” SANJEEV
GUPTA: One of the missing things is energy. Energy is expensive. We need to fix that. We are fixing that. (press conference) “Some 800,0-00 solar panels will be installed
across 1100 hectares.” PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: He wants to take us to the next generation of
steel making, using renewable energy to power his steel plants… …That’s essentially solar, wind and
hydro. (Gupta at press conference) Together that gives us the ability to offer
dispatchable baseload power, at prices cheaper than other forms of power,
that is our strong conviction. Hooray! |
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BOF RIGHT SUPER: John Collingridge, Sunday Times, UK @ 25.52 |
(Larisa at home…) Larisa
White: Do you want one corn or 2 corns? LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: There’s definitely plenty of cynics still
through the town… Even myself, there’s this little voice in the back of my
head saying, “But what if it’s all just talk?
What if it’s all just a pipe dream and tomorrow there’s all of a
sudden no funding and then we’re in the same turmoil again? (few secs of steelworks) (3)26.12 Sanjeev
Gupta: We ship these out to the UK PROF. ROY
GREEN, UTS: Well everything Mr Gupta does involves some
inherent risk… …I don’t think it’s really possible, with a
private company, to know everything about the internal financial
arrangements… When you
bought the business in September, that’s when the portrait went up …If there is a serious downturn in global
trade…I think all bets would be off for Mr Gupta, but then all bets are off
for all of us. JOHN
COLLINGRIDGE, UK SUNDAY TIMES: I have not been able to reconcile how he can
make all this work. He is stepping
into the shoes of really big, established players… …They have tried and tried and tried again
and still haven’t been able to make it work… …I question why somebody else who without
that pedigree, without that history, can make a success of it. |
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(roar of engines as Larisa watches racing
cars on the local dirt track…)
(5)23.52 LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: My feelings about the future of Whyalla have
definitely changed… …I am excited for the future. I can’t wait to see what Sanjeev’s got on
the plan next… …There’s definitely an expectation that
Sanjeev is going to contribute to the community. (few secs of car racing etc) (interview at the track) This is the Whyalla dirt circuit club, and we
love coming here because it’s such a good family atmosphere… …My partner Dylan is one of the drivers…A lot
of the guys from the steel works are part of the dirt circuit club. Just this morning, two of the guys here had
just finished night shift.
(few secs of car racing etc) I always joke that I’ve got two little steel
makers and that one day they’ll probably work at the steelworks too. STUART
MONROE, STEEL WORKER: There’s been a lot of damage done, and a lot
of people left town, lot of businesses closed… Everyone knows that it’s not going to be an
overnight change. But it’s certainly a
lot better feeling. MARK MENTHA,
ADMINISTRATOR: Whyalla has been given a second chance… It
needs to make the most of that second chance to continue as a vibrant
community… And they can’t rest on their laurels and just
go, “Phew, I’m glad that’s behind us,” because the challenge is still ahead
of them. |
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(Larisa meets Gupta) “Hi Sanjeev,
nice to meet you mate. This is
Larisa, one of our team leaders.” LARISA
WHITE, STEEL WORKER: I was really excited to meet Sanjeev and
given the opportunity, I was so nervous.
“Sanjeev can
I please get a photo because you’re my hero, I want to put it on my Facebook
and everybody will be jealous.” SANJEEV
GUPTA, BRITISH BUSINESSMAN: I’m sure we will have success. We have success already. We’re already making money in our plants… The great promise is ahead. How, how much of that promise can we
actually actualize? Now that is an
unknown. |
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(Gupta gets into private jet and flies
away…) …and there
will be enough opportunities in Whyalla ..Yeah maybe
they’ll go into fabrication When things are going well, for me it just
eggs me on to the next one… …Enjoyment for me is finding the next thing
to do, and the next challenge and the next progress to make. (few secs of fx) So what I’m trying to say is that I will
never stop in Whyalla. I will move on
in the sense that… we, I will leave Australia, I will move on to another
country… …First of September next year (laughs) is
when I will leave. That’s the target. (few secs of fx But our business will continue, and will
continue to grow from strength to strength… …So, Whyalla will continue to grow in its own
way forever.
(11)28.13 (plane disappears in distance to end) |