Bluescope Steel - New Zealand Steel

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Annual Report 2004

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New Zealand Steel

Our New Zealand Steel business is a unique, fully integrated operation based at Glenbrook, near Auckland. The business covers the entire steel supply chain, mining iron-rich sands on the west coast of the North Island, producing a wide range of steel products, and running an extensive customer service network.

The Steelworks produces iron from ironsands by electrical melting. This iron is converted to steel using conventional basic oxygen steelmaking, cast into slab, and processed to produce hot rolled coil. New Zealand Steel adds value to hot rolled coil through cold rolling, painting, metallic coating, plate, welded beam and pipe making facilities.

A new maintenance initiative will reduce down-time and improve slab production in 2004/05. Unplanned maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2003/04 marginally affected slab production, resulting in a 1.3 per cent decrease for the year.

In 2003/04 the operation increased paint line production to 53,000 tonnes, up 10.9 per cent from the previous year. A metal coating line expansion was implemented, and further work in the first half of the new financial year is expected to deliver this facility's expected capacity increase of 11.3 per cent, to 230,000 tonnes per year. Due to these upgrade works, total metal coating production was 197,000 tonnes, down 7.5 per cent from last year.

The New Zealand Steel management team was reshaped during the year and is focused on achieving further manufacturing improvements and maximising the market potential of the business.

In 2003/04, a record 261,000 tonnes of product (44 per cent of New Zealand Steel's production) was sold into strong domestic markets. The balance was sold into export markets, utilising BlueScope Steel's international sales network.

New Zealand Steel specialises in servicing key niche export markets, and maintains a broad portfolio of export customers. Customer demand for New Zealand Steel products continued to grow during the year. Building approvals exceeded expectations, driven in part by New Zealand's immigration policies.

KARL PARTRIDGE // Production supervisor, above, for New Zealand Steel, is involved in the conversion of iron-rich sands to a wide range of steel products.

STEEL FROM SANDS // The unique black ironsands, above, are mined by New Zealand Steel on the west coast of the North Island.

GROWING MARKET // Buildings such as the New Zealand school, above, demonstrate the growing demand for steel building products in New Zealand.