The scrap to steel making part of our business.All our scrap is sourced locally and is sorted and shredded on our behalf by Sims Pacific Metals – conveniently located next door to us, their biggest customer. The scrap is placed in piles in our yard, depending on its grade and size.
The scrap is then loaded by a grab crane into baskets. Each “heat” is created from three basket loads of Scrap. The baskets are loaded from a recipe sheet. The first basket will hold the most scrap – 20 tonnes plus – and then basket two and three will progressively hold less. The target is 50 tonnes of scrap per heat.
The first basket is lowered over the electric arc furnace and the scrap is dropped in. An electrical current is combined with chemical energy to heat the scrap to a near molten state. At this point the second basket is added and once this is also molten, the third and final basket is added. This progressive basket process is required in order to fit all the scrap in one heat.