The final question ABC News asked GFG Alliance chairman Sanjeev Gupta at the end of a 25-minute interview was “how are you?”

Slightly odd perhaps, given the billionaire businessman expanded his property portfolio in September with a $12.5 million Sydney waterside apartment, while hundreds of workers at his Whyalla steelworks took pay cuts, 48 jobs were shed, and some local contractors struggled to get paid.

But given Mr Gupta has the immediate fate of thousands of jobs in his hands in Australia and around the world, and his metals empire appears to be lurching from one crisis to the next, it seemed an appropriate question.

For a moment he caught his breath, then answered, “It is my chosen path, it was never going to be easy”.

Mr Gupta was heralded as a saviour when he bought the Whyalla steelworks out of administration in 2017, but since then, by his own admission, he’s lost more than $1.3 billion on the plant.

And those losses are mounting; the steelworks is continuing to haemorrhage money as workers try to revive its stricken coal-fired blast furnace, which has been offline for almost six months this year.

Remarkably, Mr Gupta’s Australian operations are a bright spot for his conglomerate — his iron ore mines linked to the steelworks make money, as do other businesses he owns, such as steel company InfraBuild.

“Our business in Australia is profitable, overall, despite Whyalla’s problems,” he said.

It is GFG Alliance’s operations in Europe and the United Kingdom that are really suffering from a “perfect storm”, the metals tycoon explained — starting with the war in Ukraine, a decline in demand, and limited local access to raw materials for steel making.

“As a result of that, if there are parts of those [UK and European] businesses which are not viable, or which can’t be sustained, then unfortunately, despite best efforts, they do need to be restructured or curtailed, which is happening — but it’s not impacting our Australian business in any way, shape or form,” Mr Gupta said. 

Mr Gupta’s steel mills in the Czech Republic and Poland are facing bankruptcy proceedings.

His steel plants in Belgium, Romania, Italy and Luxembourg have reduced production due to market conditions. 

A GFG spokesperson said “unviable” parts of its operations in Wales and England have been idled as they pivot their production to low emissions products.

Another steelworks in Scotland is only being run intermittently as it struggles to compete with cut-price steel imports from other countries. 

Mr Gupta is also being prosecuted by the UK’s corporate registry, Companies House, for allegedly failing to file accounts for 76 of his companies listed in Britain.

He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

A GFG spokesperson said there are no “underlying issues with our accounts and directors have taken all reasonable steps to resolve the situation.”

Creditors for collapsed supply chain financier Greensill Capital are pursing him for around $800 million in unpaid funds.

“We’re working collaboratively with them [creditors]” the 53-year-old said, referring to efforts to finalise a debt restructuring plan. 

“Until there’s a final agreement, there is not a final agreement.”

And the UK’s Serious Fraud Office is investigating GFG for suspected fraud related to its dealing with Greensill Capital. 

No charges have been filed, and a GFG spokesperson said they had “consistently denied any wrong-doing”. 

“By the law, I’m not allowed to talk about the investigation,” Mr Gupta said.

“What I can say to you is that it’s progressing, the companies which are impacted are collaborating with them [the Serious Fraud Office] and providing all the information, it’s progressing satisfactorily.”

A delicate balancing act

Given these mounting pressures, the ABC’s first question to Mr Gupta was whether his entire global operations were on the brink of collapse.

GFG is “an alliance”, Mr Gupta replied, and each part of “the family’s holdings are separately structured or separately held, and there are different levels of issues or stressors in different places.”

He added that many of the stressors his company was grappling with, such as slumping steel prices, were being felt right across the steel industry.

And the British businessman was keen to separate what he says were the “short-term” issues GFG faces and his long-term plans for Whyalla.

That plan involves a more than $1 billion investment in an Electric Arc Furnace and Direct Reduction Plant to make ‘green steel’ using magnetite from his surrounding mines.

The federal government has given GFG a $63 million grant to help it go green, of which, Mr Gupta says, around $1 million has been spent.

The South Australian government has $50 million on the table if the project is realised.

“We are absolutely committed” to the transition to green iron, Mr Gupta said, and “the best place of doing it is in Whyalla”.

“The missing piece is energy, which in the long-term is hydrogen.”

Delayed transition 

The South Australian government has committed to supplying GFG hydrogen from the hydrogen power plant it is planning to have up and running at Whyalla by the early part of 2026.

But the almost $600 million project remains in the procurement phase.

Mr Gupta has already pushed back by two years his plans to transition to green steel to better align with the government’s build, and he expects problems with the “trailblazing” power plant.

“Hydrogen is real, it will happen, but it will have problems, hiccups, overruns, cost overruns, technology issues, it will have all the plethora of problems any new technology does, anybody who expects anything different is mistaken,” he said. 

Until green hydrogen is being produced at scale, natural gas will likely play a role as an important substitute.

“The beauty of this situation, and this technology, is you can use natural gas,” Mr Gupta said. 

But the long-term future of the Whyalla steelworks — the nation’s only Australian-based manufacturer of steel for rail — depends on fixing its short-term problems.

The coal-fired blast furnace was shuttered in August as the plant ran low on coking coal, and hasn’t come back online since, with a major set-back in September when GFG said “unwanted material” got in it.

The furnace was also offline for around four months earlier this year after it cooled too much following maintenance work in March.

“Our immediate job is to get the blast furnace up and running, stabilise operations and we have a plan now to bring it back to full production,” Mr Gupta said.

Maintaining a positive outlook

Market conditions have also improved slightly in recent weeks, with a drop in raw material prices and demand from China slowly picking up.

“We’re confident we can get the Whyalla operation back to profitability,” Mr Gupta said. 

In his own opinion, the British businessman remains the right person to be running the steelworks.

“I’m not trying to claim that as a claim to fame, I think it is fragile and we need to fix it and we’re fixing it.

“But the right path for most shareholders would do as others are doing — to shut down and save money and build an [electric] arc furnace. That’s not my path.

“We will stick to our path.”

It is a promised pathway to prosperity that is wearing thin for Whyalla residents and the state government, the latter publicly supporting GFG while acknowledging it is making contingency plans in the scenario the steelworks enters administration.

The state government is also now one of those owed money by GFG, which has stopped paying mining royalties.

Mr Gupta said his team was “working collaboratively” to resolve debts with larger vendors and was prioritising payments to local contractors in Whyalla.

Just days after the ABC’s interview with Mr Gupta, Aurizon suspended some of it rail services for GFG Alliance in the Upper Spencer Gulf because of unpaid debts.

Until the matter is resolved, GFG cannot get iron ore from its mines at the Middleback Ranges to the Whyalla port, which may impact its ability to export ore, a crucial and profitable part of its business in the Upper Spencer Gulf.