'1250 more jobs’

Press, 29 October 1981, Page 2

'1250 more jobs’

PA Auckland The $7OO million New Zealand Steel plant expansion approved by the Cabinet would provide more than 1250 jobs during the development, said the company's public relations officer, Mr Ray Lockhart, yesterday.

About 344 tradesmen, 195 technical and supervisory staff, and 714 . clerical workers and skilled people would be needed, Mr Lockhart said. About 60 per cent would be local, the rest "imported.” - Mr Lockhart said a report on the proposal to transport iron ore , from the mine site to the mill by rail would be released ; soon.

Stage r one, due to be completed in 1985, would involve extensions of the mining, iron making, and steel-mak-

ing facilities to produce 600,000 tonnes of Slab steel a year.

Stage two, due for completion in 1988, will involve the installation of hot and cold strip mill facilities and machinery associated with rolling the slabs into finished coil products. Cabinet approval was given on Tuesday, after assurances by the company that its product would be competitive outside Australasia in the Jong term. The project is expected to create more than 2000 permanent new jobs, and to earn an estimated $l9O million in foreign exchange annually.

New Zealand Steel’s managing director, Mr John Ingram, said yesterday he was confident that . expansion

plans for the mill would withstand the scrutiny of a labour government.

The leader of the Opposition (Mr Rowling) had said that the Labour Party would review the project on taking office. It would proceed only on the basis of proved earnings in overseas exchange and production of steel at competitive prices. Mr Ingram said yesterday that the company had done its homework and would be able to provide proof of overseas earnings and competitiveness. “There is nothing surer than Labour support. The New Zealand Steel Investigating Company was started by a Labour government, and successive governments have supported us,” Mr Ingram said.