Whyalla's port an added advantage for potential of the city's steelworks on upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia
The 300th Supramax ship (with a capacity of 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes) at Whyalla’s outer harbour on South Australia's Spener Gulf. The port was an important element in the potential advantages, including nearby iron ore mines, of the city's steelworks.
Images courtesy GFG Alliance
Whyalla Port was reopened in 2025 as part of administrators being appointed by the South Australian to take over the city steelworks.
The port – an important element, with access to iron ore and renewable energy, in the potential for the steelworks – was owned by Liberty Primary Metals Australia, a subsidiary of the Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance that had also owned the steelworks through OneSteel Manufacturing up to early 2025.
Whyalla Port, exporting iron ore since 1903, has two mobile harbour cranes, an inner harbour, outer harbour and offshore transhipment points in 2025. Whyalla port had been expanded under the steelworks previous owners, Arrium Mining, to double the export capacity of iron ore feed material. Arrium also ran mining operations in South Australia’s Middleback Ranges and at Southern Iron. The quay wall was extended 85 metres to handling vessels up to 50,000 deadweight tonnes and single 4200-ton-per-hour-capacity ship loader with a maximum travel of 110 metres was added.
Under the port’s GFG Alliance ownership, Liberty Primary Metals Australia reported in 2020 that it and and port operator Qube had installed a second mobile harbour crane, again doubling the port’s handling capacity. In 2023, it celebrated the milestone of loading the 300th Supramax ship (with a capacity of 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes) at Whyalla’s outer harbour.
But, with the steelworks' troubles deepening from 2024, ships were not able the access the port in early 2025. These included ships waiting to load iron ore that Peak Iron Mines had been bringing from its Peculiar Knob mine southeast of Coober Pedy to the Whyalla port from 2020. BHP also to occasionally uses the port to export copper concentrate from Olympic Dam and associated mines.
GFG Alliance subsidiary SIMEC MIning operated the nearbly Middleback Ranges operations of Iron Baron, Iron Knob and South Middleback Ranges mine sites where hematite and magnetite iron ore were railed and piped to Whyalla. Contractors for those operations were among the major creditors to be dealt with by the steelworks administrators Korda Mentha. The administrator also took over overseeing another GFG Alliance-owned operation, the Ardrossan dolomite mine that supplied dolomite flux to the Whyalla steelworks.
