Employees were notified of the redundancies yesterday afternoon, where they were told they would receive their entitlements from the sale of Forge assets and a federal government scheme.

"There is no money to pay the employees and no work to perform," KordaMentha Restructuring partner Mark Mentha said.

"We are working closely with the administrators, Ferrier Hodgson, to do whatever we can to help the employees at this dreadful time for them and their families.

"We will be bringing the employees back to their home town and helping them apply for their entitlements."

Mentha said Forge's international businesses in South Africa, Asia and the United States would operate as usual pending their sale.

He said the Australian operations had to be assessed on a project-by-project basis.

Forge slipped into receivership yesterday after its financier, ANZ Bank, withdrew support for the company.

Ferrier Hodgson were appointed as voluntary administrators, with ANZ also appointing KordaMentha as receivers and managers.

Mentha said Forge's financiers had done "everything possible" to give it time to find a solution and repair its balance sheet.

The collapse marks the end of a troubled period for the contractor, which reported significant cost overruns and profit downgrades due to underperforming power stations in the Pilbara and Queensland.

Forge previously employed 1753 staff in Australia, mostly in the construction division, with a further 814 overseas.

The collapse has seen Standard and Poor's remove it from the S&P/ASX 200 index and Macquarie has released a final investment note after ceasing its coverage.

Macquarie rated Forge at underperform and said the move into administration represented "more pain" for the struggling company.

Earlier this year Forge changed its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation forecast to a loss of $20-25 million compared to November guidance of $45-50 million.

The numbers excluded the estimated $150-155 million in losses on the West Angelas and Diamantina power stations.

Forge shares remained suspended at 91.5c today.