Oct 26 2006
Australia's BlueScope Steel Limited has officially opened its new state-of-the-art flat steel metallic coating and painting facility at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu province, 80 kilometres west of Shanghai.
The Governor of Victoria David de Kretser joined BlueScope Steel's Chairman Graham Kraehe and Managing Director and CEO Kirby Adams in the official opening ceremonies.
The wholly-owned operation, developed at a capital cost of approximately A$280 million, is BlueScope Steel's most significant investment in Asia and Australia's largest manufacturing investment in China.
The new flagship facility is part of BlueScope Steel's $2 billion investment program, comprising 20 projects in eight countries, to move further into high value-added branded steel products.
Said Managing Director and CEO Kirby Adams: "For BlueScope Steel, this building is our largest facility and single largest investment in Asia. But it's more than that. It's a very important part of our future. With China's steel industry almost 50 times bigger than that of Australia's, and with so much growth still ahead of it, China offers companies like BlueScope Steel enormous opportunities.
"We see ourselves as actually part of the Chinese steel industry. We are a small, but significant customer of China's raw steel output because of the value added products we produce from that steel and the new markets and innovations we introduce."
BlueScope Steel's Suzhou facility has a metallic coating capacity of 250,000 tonnes and painting capacity of 150,000 tonnes per annum. It will produce BlueScope Steel's range of quality branded products, including Improved Clean COLORBOND®, ZINCALUME®, AURORA® and OPAL® steels for customers in China's rapidly growing building and construction markets. It will also supply BlueScope Buildings, which manufactures the premium quality LYSAGHT® range of building components and the BUTLER® range of pre-engineered buildings (PEBs).
BlueScope Steel's President Asian Building and Manufacturing Markets, Kathryn Fagg said: "BlueScope Steel's new metallic coating and painting facility at Suzhou will enable us to produce tailored products to respond even more quickly to China's market opportunities, forge closer collaborative partnerships and provide better service for all our customers in China."
BlueScope Steel China has won a number of large contracts to supply premium quality steel building solutions to key infrastructure projects for the 2008 Beijing Olympics including the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium, the Olympic Fencing Training Centre and the Olympic Swimming Training Centre.
BlueScope Steel has had a presence in mainland China for over a decade. The Company's principal market in China is the building and construction sector. Today, in China it operates seven BlueScope Buildings plants in five cities, supported by 55 regional sales and marketing offices, and has nearly 2,000 employees. In addition to manufacturing individual steel building products, BlueScope Buildings is the leading manufacturer of PEBs in China.
http://www.bluescopesteel.com