BlueScope Steel announces the opening of a new hot rolled coil
processing line at their Port Kembla steelworks.
BlueScope’s TRU-SPEC coil plate steel processing line has been installed
adjacent to the Hot Strip Mill at the Port Kembla steelworks, and utilises
state-of-the-art stretch-levelling technology for the manufacture of coil plate
in Australia. Constructed ahead of schedule, the line’s launch date was brought
forward by one month.
Officially opened on 18 August by the Lord Mayor of Wollongong, Councillor
Gordon Bradbery OAM, Jason Ellis (BlueScope general manager - Sales, Marketing,
Innovation and Trading) and John Nowlan (BlueScope general manager -
Manufacturing), the new processing line will allow BlueScope to significantly
enhance its market offer for coil plate with customers now able to order
smaller quantities on short lead times.
BlueScope's new coil plate product will be available in the market as TRU-SPEC coil
plate steel, providing customers with an industry-leading standard of
consistently-flat and memory-free coil plate products. TRU-SPEC will bend,
cut, press and form predictably to ensure products made from it can be produced
efficiently and easily.
BlueScope market manager - Gregory Moffitt explains that the excellent
flatness, consistency and surface condition of TRU-SPEC coil plate steel is
particularly suited to laser-cutting, which requires coil plate products to
stay flat during the cutting process.
He adds that stretch levelling technology produces a 'memory-free'
product, which means TRU-SPEC coil plate steel is less likely to flex up and
jam, or damage the laser cutter.
Full production is scheduled to commence from September 2014.
