00:02Like a mirage, the smoke rising from the blast furnace at the Wayala Steelworks is not what it appears.
00:09It shows that it's not actually going, that's why the steam's coming out the top.
00:12When it's running there's very little that comes out.
00:15Five months after the vital facility went down, despite the best efforts of workers,
00:20the chances of it ever restarting appear to be diminishing.
00:24The blast furnace will go cold and there will be something there to replace it.
00:28That's what we're working towards. Don't get hurt trying to save something that can't be saved.
00:34But that art furnace replacement is still years away and about 400 full-time jobs are at stake.
00:41And there are fears hundreds more contract workers could also be impacted.
00:46If the blast furnace has bad news for us, there will be a lot of turbulence.
00:51So far, more than $2.6 billion has either been spent or promised by state and federal governments to support
00:59the business,
01:00which went into administration in February last year, its second financial failure in a decade.
01:06The community is also anxiously awaiting an imminent decision on who will be the new owner of the stricken business.
01:14Australian M Resources, Indian owned Jindal or potentially Australia's largest steel producer, Blue Scope,
01:21which has the right of last refusal on any sale.
01:25I don't know if it will be this month, but there will be a sale process.
01:28We've got two extraordinary bidders who are slugging it out.
01:30Despite all the unknown, some businesses say they're still holding up well financially.
01:35Australia needs a steel, so we're too big to fight. We need this blast furnace, we need everything going.
01:40Wales is still here and I'm sure it's still going to be here next year.
01:44A resilient town waiting and needing some answers.
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