Since it officially opened in May 2022, The Hub has been helping BlueScope Distribution to support its customers in delivering significant projects across Australia.
Located in the Wollongong suburb of Unanderra, New South Wales, BlueScope Distribution’s National Product, Processing and Solutions hub – known simply as ‘The Hub’ – is the company’s 16th site in Australia.
Ideally situated on the east coast, The Hub is within close proximity to key suppliers and material sources, including the Port Kembla Steelworks, Bisalloy Steel, and blast and prime partners.
The Hub is also based within a well-established intermodal freight region, further boosting its logistical efficiency.
According to Mick McPhan, BlueScope Distribution’s manager of The Hub, the facility is well placed to provide its mining customers with a holistic product and service offering that supports significant projects around Australia.
“The aim of this capability is to help our Australian manufacturers grow and deliver more projects through a sovereign supply chain,” McPhan told Australian Mining.
The Hub is equipped with a dedicated project management team that works closely with customers to simplify and manage multifaceted supply chains typically associated with major projects.
The unique solution can support steel-intensive projects with complex processing and component manufacturing, including steel kits ready for product assembly.
Image: BlueScope Distribution
The Hub uses a state-of-the-art ‘MicroStep’ multi-functional processing line to deliver plasma and oxyfuel plate-cutting capabilities, including variable bevels, counter bore and drilling, and tapping capabilities as well as a variety of marking functionalities including etching, laser and inkjet marking.
“We can handle all weld preparation work for downstream fabricators,” McPhan said. “We inkjet mark, drill, tap and counter sink.
“The facility also supports projects by offering solutions such as supplying material in kit form, ready for final assembly and installation by customers.”
BlueScope Distribution now intends to invest in a new cutting-edge computer numerical control laser-cutting machine for The Hub.
The innovative technology aims to enhance the site’s capability to process a range of steel and aluminium products, allowing it to further support customer growth by providing efficiencies and ready-to-manufacture components on time and to specification.
“Many of our customers also tell us that floor space within their own operations is vital,” McPhan said. “Offering customers semi-finished components often saves them considerable floor space and frees up their own labour.”
In addition to offering the added capacity to handle significant projects and the convenience of dealing with a single provider for product, processing and service solutions, The Hub is home to a dedicated, well-credentialled team that provides complete and customised end-to-end solutions.
The team’s expertise, technical know-how and local product and processing knowledge incorporates many skillsets, from which customers can benefit throughout their projects.
Customers are encouraged to engage the BlueScope Distribution team early on in each project, allowing the company to better assist at the design and specification stages and provide a single point of contact throughout a project.
A further benefit of the facility is its centralised project management services, which help coordinate the complex supply chains that are typically associated with large steel-intensive projects, providing supply chain certainty.
“Our collaboration with our trusted partners is incredibly important. We are part of the broader BlueScope group and have a well-established partnership with Bisalloy Steel and blast and prime partners,” McPhan said.
“We work together closely to ensure all aspects of a project’s requirements can be met and well-coordinated to ensure we maintain a lean supply chain.”
BlueScope Distribution remains customer-focused, investing in new capabilities that drive service innovations and increase capacity well into the future.
“We have listened to our customers and are proud to be working on plans to deliver the next phase of investment at The Hub,” McPhan said.
This feature appeared in the April 2024 issue of Australian Mining.
