00:02After months on life support, the end appears near for Wyala's struggling blast furnace.
00:08When do you call time and just say this is not working?
00:11I think it's fair to say that we're getting very close to that point.
00:15Offline since April, workers at the steelworks have been trying to restart it without success.
00:21The question for us is, how much longer can we do this and keep doing it?
00:26And it is getting to a point where it's becoming very, very difficult.
00:28A decision on whether to keep going will be made in the coming days, making for a nervous wait for
00:35those on the ground.
00:36Having some anxiety around that about what the future holds for them, that'll play on workers' minds.
00:42The ABC understands hundreds of workers would be affected if the furnace is abandoned, but the exact number of job
00:48losses is unknown.
00:50This is not the same as the Holden assembly line stopping.
00:54There's potentially some reductions in employment, but we're looking at the redeployment options as well.
01:00This is part of a recapitalisation that will see the blast furnace go cold, be decommissioned, and something replace it.
01:11What happens from here is partly dependent on the future owner of the steelworks, which have been in administration since
01:17February last year.
01:18State and federal governments have so far allocated close to $3 billion for a bailout.
01:24The sale process now in its final stages, with the successful bidder to be announced by October.
01:30State and federal governments'
