Tapping of a heat from the Arc Furnace into the ladle.

One of the most modern and efficient steel-making plants in the world, the mill is located at Laverton of Melbourne, Victoria.

The mini-mill was commissioned in 1983, and following an upgrade in 1997 has a capacity of approximately 700,000 tonnes of billet a year.

The electric arc furnace at the hub of the mill supplies a four-strand continuous casting machine that produces steel billet to feed into bar and rod rolling mills.

Billet is converted into rod and bar, most of which is sold to the downstream manufacturing and distribution businesses of the Group.

The product range includes merchant bar, steel rod for wire drawing, and reinforcing rod and bar for use primarily in the building and construction industry.

Nearly 40% of the mill's recycled scrap feed is supplied by Smorgon Steel Recycling. The remainder is sourced externally.

		Newly machined railway wheels awaiting dispatch from Smorgon Steel's Waratah plant.

The Smorgon Steel mill has been operating at Waratah, NSW for more than 70 years and is Australia's leading supplier of specialty steel products for the rail transport, mining, oil and gas, sugar and defence industries. Utilising electric arc furnace technology, Smorgon Steel produces billets and ingots from steel scrap.

Billets are converted into:

Bar products - Billets from a continuous vertical caster are reheated and rolled in a bar mill to produce a range of sizes and grades. Bar products are distributed by Smorgon Steel Metals Distribution and other distributors as well as being sold direct to customers.

Grinding media - steel balls used in grinding mills to break down rock and other material for the mining, quarrying and cement industries.

Ingots are used in the production of:

Railway wheels - pre-sliced ingots are forged into shape and then machined to produce 150 different types, most sold domestically; and

Forged products - primarily steel rolls used in cold roll mills for the production of coiled steel and paper.

A $13.7million environmental upgrade of the Smorgon Steel facility, completed in 2000, increased capacity of the electric arc furnace from about 200,000 to 285,000 tonnes of billet annually.