Boart opens in Forrestfield

DRILLING services contractor Boart Longyear has officially opened a manufacturing plant in Forrestfield, one of seven centres servicing its global operations.

The new facility consolidates Boart’s manufacturing operations in Western Australia, which it secured via the purchase of Balcatta company KWL Drill Rigs in 2007 and Kewdale company Westrod Engineering in 2008.

Boart also had a facility in Henderson.

It currently has just over 100 staff at the Forrestfield facility.

At full capacity, the facility will produce 220 rigs per year, plus a wide range of drilling consumables, and will employ up to 120 staff.

Boart’s Australian base is in Adelaide, where it had previously undertaken manufacturing operations.

However a series of acquisitions prior to the group’s listing on the Australian Securities Exchange in 2007, combined with growth in the WA mining industry, has led to a shift in the group’s operations.

As well as acquiring manufacturers KWL and Westrod, it bought drilling contractors DrillCorp (for $134 million), Grimwood Davies and North West Drilling.

Boart vice-president Asia Pacific Kent Hoots said about 60 per cent of the facility’s output would be sold domestically, with the balance sold in Africa and South America.

Other regions are covered by Boart’s manufacturing facilities in the US, Canada (two), Germany, Poland and China.

Boart’s competitors include Ausdrill, which last year invested $20 million in a new manufacturing facility in Canning Vale.

At the opening of that facility, Ausdrill chief executive Ron Sayers said the company’s manufacturing division could more than double its annual revenue to $70 million in a year.

The division consists of Drilling Tools Australia and Remet Engineers.