New Zealand Steel

New Zealand Steel is a large steel mill in Glenbrook , New Zealand . It produces steel from the iron sand, which is abundant on the west coast of the North Island . The sand is mined on the coast and mixed with water, pumped through an underground pipeline to the plant and stored there for processing.

The plant is connected to the Mission Bush rail line. Trains with coal and lime supply the plant every day, steel and steel products are also transported by rail.

New Zealand Steel Limited was founded in 1965 by the New Zealand government. Construction of the Glenbrook plant began a year later. The manufacturing operation began in 1968 with the manufacture of steel products from imported steel for the domestic market and the Pacific Islands. In the meantime, the company had developed a process for the direct reduction of iron sand ( iron oxide ) to iron. In 1970 this led to the commissioning of iron and steel production, which made billets . The expansion continued in 1972 with the commissioning of pipe production and a priming line in 1982. At that time, an average of 300,000 tons of steel and iron were produced per year. The factory was modernized during the ' Think Big ' era of New Zealand industrialization.

In 1987 New Zealand Steel was taken over by Equiticorp. However, this went bankrupt in the course of the New Zealand stock crisis in the same year. In 1989 New Zealand Steel was acquired by Helenus Corporation , which was formed by Fisher & Paykel , Steel & Tube, BHP Billiton and what was then the ANZ National Bank . In 1992, BHP acquired a majority of 81% of the shares through the purchase of Fisher & Paykel and Steel & Tube. The company was then renamed BHP New Zealand Steel Limited , but was renamed back to New Zealand Steel a year later when it was listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange .

The plant produces around 650,000 tons of steel annually and thus covers most of New Zealand's steel needs. Reinforcing iron , on the other hand, is manufactured by Pacific Steel. Around 1,300 employees work in the plant, plus 200 external employees from contract companies, making the plant the largest industrial company in New Zealand by number of employees.

Web links

• Glenbrook Steel Site . New Zealand Steel, archived from the original onJanuary 24, 2005; accessed on September 1, 2014(English, original website no longer available). 

Coordinates: 37 ° 12 ′ 30.7 ″  S , 174 ° 43 ′ 55.7 ″  E