History
The west coast beaches of the North Island of New Zealand between Kaipara Harbour and Whanganui contain ironsand deposits rich in the mineral titanomagnetite.[3] From the late 19th century to the 1950s, there were many unsuccessful attempts to smelt steel from the ironsands. A prize offered by the Taranaki Provincial Government was never claimed, mostly due to problems encountered by people attempting to process the iron sand, such as a viscous slag of titanium carbides and nitrides that forms and blocks equipment when heat is applied to the sand.[4] In 1954, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research began investigating smelting from the ironsands. In 1959, The New Zealand Government established the NZ Steel Investigating Company under the Iron and Steel Industry Act 1959 as a vehicle for the investigations.[5]
New Zealand Steel Limited was incorporated by the New Zealand Government in 1965. In 1967, construction started on a mill at Glenbrook.[6] Glenbrook was chosen as the site due to the area's proximity to the Waikato North Head ironsand mine and Huntly Power Station.[4] Commercial operations began in 1968, with imported feed coil being used to produce steel for domestic and Pacific Island markets. The company pioneered the direct reduction process for reducing iron oxide (ironsand) into metallic iron. This culminated in the commissioning in 1970 of iron and steelmaking facilities to produce billets for domestic and export markets. Expansion continued with the commissioning of a pipe plant in 1972 and a prepainting line in 1982. Total output at this time averaged 300,000 tonnes a year.
The steel company ran at a loss during the 1970s, until 1981 when a more optimised, commercially viable method for extracting iron was implemented, leading to an expansion of the Glenbrook facilities.[4]
In the Think Big era of New Zealand industrialisation, the mill was upgraded. In 1987, New Zealand Steel was acquired by Equiticorp. Equiticorp was bankrupted in the New Zealand sharemarket crash of 1987. In 1989 New Zealand Steel was acquired by Helenus Corporation, which consisted of Fisher & Paykel, Steel & Tube, ANZ Bank and BHP. In 1992, BHP took up a controlling interest with an 81% shareholding by acquiring the shares of Fisher & Paykel and Steel & Tube. The company was initially renamed BHP New Zealand Steel Limited, then in 2002 was renamed New Zealand Steel when BHP Steel was listed on the Australian Securities Exchange as BlueScope.[6]
On 21 May 2023, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins announced that the New Zealand Government would provide funding of up to $140 million for an initiative to halve the consumption of coal at the Glenbrook plant and reduce carbon emissions. The project involves installation of an electric arc furnace to replace coal as the heat source for recycling scrap metal.[7]
