The Newcastle mills employ hundreds of people and are fed with steel from the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia.

They are part of the Arrium (formerly OneSteel) business that was bought for a reported $700 million by Indian-born British steel tycoon Sanjeev Gupta in 2017.

Following media reports that the company had gone to the re-elected Morrison government seeking assistance in the form of a debt "guarantee", GFG Alliance, the Gupta company now running the Arrium business, issued a statement confirming consultations with Canberra and the South Australian government.

"GFG has been in discussions with state and federal Governments since the acquisition of Arrium from administrators in 2017, given the critical nature of the business to South Australia and the importance of steelmaking nationally," Wednesday's statement said.

"In that time GFG has invested significantly to stabilise the steelworks and mining business.

"Having done so, GFG is finalising its business plan and will continue to meet with governments to assess what levels of support may be required to deliver a transformation that provides a sustainable long-term future for steelmaking in Whyalla."

It is understood that GFG is pointing to a guarantee given by the SA government over a $300 million loan to the Port Pirie lead and silver smelter as an example of the sort of assistance that it might require.

There is apparently government resistance to offering more help to the Gupta business, given the SA government had already committed $50 million to Whyalla, and given that Gupta businesses worldwide reportedly generate annual revenues of more than $16 billion, employing more than 25,000 people.

Mr Gupta is also reportedly looking at refloating the Whyalla-based business on the stock exchange, and has obtained planning approval for a 280 megawatt solar farm aimed at easing Whyalla's electricity bills, and which would be built by an arm of the SIMEC conglomerate founded by his father Parduman K. Gupta.

Arrium had been in financial administration under insolvency specialists Korda Mentha - with debts of about $2.8 billion - when Mr Gupta's Liberty Group bought the business in 2017.

Arrium's debts were mostly incurred in an ultimately unsuccessful move into iron ore exports, and Mr Gupta's purchase is credited with saving as many as 7000 jobs across the Arrium business.

Although most of the focus on the Gupta business has been on the ageing Whyalla steelworks, which opened in 1941, the Newcastle rod and bar mills are also crucial, as they roll the raw steel slabs into finished products.

The Newcastle mills were originally part of BHP's Newcastle steelworks but were kept operating in 1999 when the adjoining Newcastle blast furnaces were shut down, taking steel from South Australia that was brought to NSW by rail.

In 2000, BHP spun the Whyalla works, the Newcastle mills and other businesses into the separate OneSteel company, which remained on the stock exchange until April this year, three years after it went into administration.

After floating OneSteel in 2000, BHP repeated the play in 2002 when it put the Port Kembla steelworks into a separate business, BlueScope, which was also listed on the stock exchange.

Both companies have seen their fortunes rise and fall in line with global steel prices, but both have been hit hard in recent times with soaring energy costs.

Australian Workers Union national secretary Dan Walton said there was nothing unusual abut the negotiations between Whyalla and the SA and federal governments, which began before Mr Gupta's business took over Arrium.

The Newcastle Herald is seeking comment from the federal government.

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