Plans For Steel Industry Were Made In 1939

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 10

Plans For Steel Industry Were Made In 1939

(New Zealand Press Association)

WELLINGTON, Sept. 25. “I was convinced 20 years ago that steel would be made from New Zealand ironsands, and I am still convinced,” said Dr. T. P. Colclough, a British expert on the iron and steel industry, today. ‘‘l am so convinced of its practicability that I took out patents before the war, and handed them to the New Zealand Government,” he said. Dr. Colclough prepared a report on the establishment of an iron and steel industry in 1939. “An agreement, for the erection of a plant to produce 100,000 tons a year, was never implemented because of the war, and when the position was reviewed in 1946 it was decided the time was not opportune.” he said.

While the initial rolling plant using New Zealand scrap metal could be - built in Auckland or Wellington, close to where most of its products would be used, he

had an open mind as to where the major steel smelting plant should be situated. The South Island and, in particular, Dunedin, which had a good port and was close to potential supplies of electric power, had claims, but the most important factor in establishing the plant was freight. “There is freight on the ore to the plant, freight on the power, and freight on getting the product to the market,” he said.

“To make a ton of pig iron, about 2200 units of electricity are needed in the electric smelting process,’’ said Dr. Colclough. “To make 200 to 600 tons a day, the industry must be guaranteed a suitable amount of electricity. “If the electricity comes to the North Island by the proposed Cook Strait cable—which I am convinced must come—the cost of transmitting this power works out at .Id to .15d a unit, or from 20s to 30s a ton of pig iron. I cannot visualise carrying pig iron from the South Island to the North for 20s to 30s a ton.

“The problem of siting the industry in the South, close to the power, is not so simple as has been made out. Quantities of good coke will be needed, and the Benhar wet coal is, in my opinion, unsuitable.

Dr. Colclough said the industry would not gain the *overseas capital needed unless the investigation and advice came from technicians of the highest integrity and reputation. “’Die industry will cost £25 million to £3O million,” he said “You must make absolutely certain it is practical and economic.” It would be at least seven or eight years before steel could be made from ironsands, said Dr. Colclough. It was now being made satisfactorily from this ore in Siberia and Scandinavia. Steel was also being made from ironsands in Canada and Japan, but he was not familiar with the plant.

Dr Colcloug said that if a responsible organisation in New Zealand undertook the task of detailed research and investigation, he was certain that the industry would be assured of sympathetic interest from the leading steel makers in Britain.