Design fault to cost N.Z. Steel millions

Press, 7 April 1987, Page 8

Design fault to cost N.Z. Steel millions

PA Auckland An oversight in the design of the new steelmaking plant at Glenbrook has cost N.Z. Steel millions of dollars. A design flaw and teething problems with its new plant was the reason for the company having to dump surplus ironsand concentrate at the mill, a company official said. When that dumping was done too quickly by machine drivers over the last year, clouds of iron dust spread over the sur-

rounding countryside, damaging fruit crops.

N.Z. Steel has admitted liability and about 30 growers, mainly of kiwifruit, have claimed compensation which will cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, perhaps millions.

In the new steel plant, heated ironsand-and-coke mix sometimes had to be dumped if the process stopped further along the production line. “To a degree, this was an omission in the original design," said the com-

pany secretary, Graham Jones. "It did not cover the possiblity we would have to dump the material.”

Dumping cost the company millions of dollars a year, he said. N.Z. Steel hopes to have an enclosed hopper sys-

tem built by November to solve the iron dust problem. It would recycle surplus ironsand concentrate back into the mill when it was needed.

That system would cost the company about $2.5 million, Mr Jones said.