CASE STUDY

CATEGORY: Mining

LOCATION: Bassendean, Western Australia

PRODUCT: XLERPLATE® steel

Buckets of ExperienceTo understand what an effective business relationship can deliver; look no further than P&H MinePro Services Australasia and BlueScope Distribution.

The relationship, which has existed for decades, has arguably benefitted not just both companies, but the Australian economy as well. It’s a relationship that begins at the Port Kembla Steelworks, extends to P&H MinePro’s major sites in WA, NSW and QLD and helps a thriving export business. It’s a relationship at its most active between BlueScope Distribution’s Kewdale branch in Perth and P&H MinePro’s manufacturing facility at Bassendean.

Quality mining equipment

P&H MinePro Services is at the forefront of original equipment manufacture for the surface mining sector and its Bassendean workforce keeps this site humming. The Company has provided quality products and services – like electric rope shovels, draglines, conveyor components, machine upgrades, rebuilds and parts – to the Australasian surface mining industry since 1958, including the recent addition of LeTourneau wheel loaders.

P&H MinePro Services Australasia

Phone: 13 72 82 www.bluescopedistribution.com.auThis case study has been prepared for information purposes only. BlueScope makes no representation or warranty as to the completeness or accuracy of the information contained in this document. You must make your own assessment of the information contained in this document and rely on it wholly at your own risk. Published by BlueScope Steel Limited. ® are registered trade marks of BlueScope Steel Limited. ™ are trade marks of BlueScope Steel Limited. © 2015 BlueScope Steel Limited ABN 16 000 011 058.

At any time there are huge rope shovel buckets with capacities to 63 cubic metres under fabrication, alongside a steady output of large conveyor pulleys and TowHaul Low Loader mining equipment, capable of transporting loads to 450-tonnes.

In the current mining boom customers have an inherent sense of urgency and P&H MinePro Services is already scheduling work into 2013.

Streamlined production

To streamline its production process the company purchases the large amounts of special XLERPLATE® steel grades it needs direct from the Port Kembla Steelworks.

As a result of equipment upgrades and the intensity of activity at Bassendean, P&H MinePro has chosen to keep its XLERPLATE® steel stock at the BlueScope Distribution branch for its needs.

“Because of the non-standard sheet sizes and grades that suit our requirements, we order directly from BlueScope Steel’s Port Kembla steel mill,” Operations Planning Supervisor, Colin Rayner explained.

“By pre-planning and having BlueScope Distribution hold that stock for us we are able to eliminate the lead-time which would otherwise result if we had to wait for the steel to be produced at the mill.

“BlueScope Distribution’s Kewdale branch actively manages the steel stock they are holding for us. We get regular reports and can draw down on that stock to have it on site within 24 hours.

“Although we order steel from the mill for specific purposes, the vendor-managed inventory system gives us maximum flexibility in how we use it. As we draw down stock we re-order through BlueScope Distribution.”

Much of the XLERPLATE® steel used at Bassendean is custom range 350 grade L15 plate, produced by BlueScope Steel under licence to P&H MinePro in non-standard plate sizes and various levels of thickness up to 100 mm thick.

It is a product that came out of collaboration in the 1990s between steel technologists at the Port Kembla steelworks and P&H engineers at the Company’s Milwaukee, WI, USA headquarters.

“BlueScope Steel changed its manufacturing process to advance its own standards and also to accommodate our requirements,” Colin said.

“There was an intensive back-and-forth process with our head-office engineers in Milwaukee to perfect that grade of steel up to 100 mm thick. Prior to that, BlueScope Steel had not produced an L15 grade up to that size.”

BlueScope Steel’s steel-making initiatives during that earlier mining boom period have had flow-on benefits for all fabricators. Additionally, it’s helped P&H MinePro’s Bassendean facility prosper in the local market as a manufacturer using Australian steel.

“We export to our parent company in America and to Indonesia, South Africa, Russia and Canada,” Colin said. “Dippers or buckets and the handle or support structure to which they are mounted, plus face shovels or rope shovels are our main products.

“Because of our distance from suppliers and markets we try to be independent and self-sufficient. The relationship with BlueScope Distribution for vendor-managed inventory is working very well.”

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BlueScope Distribution’s Strategic Accounts Manager – WA, Justin Stevens (left) visits P&H MinePro Operations Planning Supervisor, Colin

Rayner, at the mining equipment specialist’s Bassendean works in Perth.