Westview Group has signed an agreement with Hatch to finalise the remaining engineering, approvals and construction planning required for a final investment decision on its planned steel mill.
Perth-based Westview Group has signed an agreement with global engineering firm Hatch to finalise the remaining engineering, approvals and construction planning required for a final investment decision on its planned steel mill.
The expanded scope of work was signed last week by Westview chairman Grant Johnston and Hatch’s Montreal-based managing director ferrous metals Joe Petrolito.
Westview subsidiary Alter Steel has been working with Hatch for the past two years on plans to build an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Brisbane.
It is aiming for a final investment decision on the circa $750 million project in “coming months”.
Under the new agreement, Hatch will undertake engineering studies and coordinate with builders and installers to optimise constructability and cost.
The ambitious project adds to Westview’s existing operations, as a major supplier of steel reinforcing products through East Rockingham-based Bestbar Reinforcements and east coast business Wire Industries.
With annual revenue of $650 million, Westview was featured in Business News’ recent publication, Top 100 Private Businesses Western Australia.
Mr Johnston, who is also managing director of Alter Steel, said Hatch will continue working alongside key technical partners, including steelmaking technology provider Danieli.
“Our approach has been to build the project around a fully integrated supply chain, linking scrap, steelmaking and downstream demand, which is critical to delivering a project of this scale,” he said.
“With Hatch leading engineering and project delivery, we are moving through the final development milestones toward construction.”
Mr Johnston told Business News early this year that a new, low emissions steel mill was needed in Australia.
“There is a total imbalance in the market,” he said.
“Our customers want local supply and they want green steel but at the moment you can’t do both those things.”
Westview evaluated construction of a mill in its home state of Western Australia but concluded it wasn’t viable.
Mr Johnston said the supply of scrap material and the level of demand in WA were both too small to justify building a 500,000 tonne per annum steel mill.
“We need that scale to justify investing $750 million-plus,” he said.
Alter’s plans are supported by an MOU with ASX company Sims to supply up to 550,000 tonnes pa of scrap material as feed for the proposed steel mill.
Westview is not alone in pursuing plans for a new low emissions steel mill.
Green Steel WA is pursuing plans for a 450,000tpa mill at Collie while Future Forgeworks is aiming to build a 350,000tpa steel mill in the Queensland city of Ipswich.
