B.H.P. PLANS £3.8m PLANT

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30447, 22 May 1964, Page 17

B.H.P. PLANS £3.8m PLANT

Steel Rolling At Whyalla

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) SYDNEY, May 21. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company, Ltd., will spend £3.Bm at the Whyalla steel-works on a new plant for rolling special structural steel sections.

The new plant will be used to roll wide flange sections, a structural shape now finding many applications overseas.

The shapes will be rolled at Whyalla as beams up to 30 inches by 10} inches and as columns up to 12 inches by 12 inches, and will have parallel flanges. These shapes are not rolled in Australia at present. Building Use

The shapes are being used increasingly in the erection of multi-storey buildings, factories, and in all types of steel construction.

Australia uses almost 20,000 tons of steel a year in structural shapes, and wide flange sections already being used here are either imported or fabricated from heavy plate. Wide flange sections are 10 to 15 per cent stronger for a given weight and are simpler, more convenient, and more economical in construction than conventional designs.

B.H.P. expects the new mill to be in construction by early 1966.

A new blast furnace with a daily capacity of about 1700 tons is expected to be operational by about June, 1965.

Business Personal

Mr E. O. Hunter, Who has been in top management in New Zealand since 1937, has begun practice as a financial and management consultant. Mr Hunter is the first practitioner in this field, as distinct" from management. and industrial consultants, in the South Island.