Steel Cement Celebrates 20 years

MICK BYRNE, Group General Manager, Independent Cement and Lime Pty Ltd, put pen to paper to share the story surrounding the formation of Steel Cement and the challenges that it faced along the road to success.

THE founders of Independent Cement were well informed on the usefulness of ground slag as a cement replacement. With great foresight, determination and courage they agreed to build a grinding mill at Port Melbourne.

The decision to build a mill was subject to acquiring granulated slag from BHP at Newcastle. This coincided with BHP at Newcastle looking to expand its options for the use of Blast Furnace slag from its site. The decision to granulate was based on BHP’s desire to capture the increased value that Granulate offered over rock slag.

The contract entered between Steel Cement and BHP added greater value for the granulate and presented Steel Cement with a very large quantity of granulate to be sold as road base in the Hunter or shipped to the mill at Port Melbourne.

The Japanese company, UBE Industries, became a shareholder and supplied the modern vertical roller mill. The Japanese personnel worked alongside Steel Cement’s contractors and staff, including Alan Dow, Phil Ireland, Alf Frommer, Wayne Tuddenham and Dave Lambrick. The former have many great memories of their time in Melbourne, and several recently visited for the 20th Anniversary dinner.

Unfortunately, following the opening of the plant, the market for cement in Victoria collapsed and the company struggled through a most difficult era. Losses mounted and the efforts to meet Steel Cement’s obligations to remove granulate proved onerous. A shipload was even stored in Barro Group’s Mountain View Quarry at Point Wilson.

It’s important to remember that while the use of slag is now an everyday event, that was not the case in the early 1990s. Steel Cement and ICL pioneered the use of slag in Victoria. Thankfully,
despite their difficulties, BHP supported the efforts of Steel Cement to stick it out. The shareholders did their best to support the use of ground slag in their concrete.

Over the years, the ownership structure changed, with the pioneers David Noonan and Len Willey’s companies selling, and later Ube Industries. The company finally became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Independent Cement, which by then was a 50:50 partnership between the Barro Group and Adelaide Brighton Cement.

The current success of Steel Cement is a testimony to the foresight of its founders, particularly David Noonan, the courage of its shareholders, the dedication and hard work of the management and staff who have maintained the facility, and the great work that has been done in the promotion of its output. Steel Cement is now an integral part of Independent Cement, and while it faces some interesting decisions over the next few years, its current success is just reward to all those associated with the company over the 20 years.

Contact Independent Cement and Lime Pty Ltd today for more information on our innovative Ecoblend product range by phoning 03 9676 0000.

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