Welcome to the April edition of Spoke in Brief Australia. Featured this month are the following stories:

• Tahmoor Coal Handling Plant leads the way on safety
• ARC Commercial Improvement Program delivers results
• Mental health awareness gains traction across the group
• Aussie steel underpins nation-building Inland Rail project
• Liberty’s supply chain transparency contributes to Transform
• Austube Mills customer sessions fuel market knowledge
• Name our new schools training program
• EU approves Liberty bid for ArcelorMittal European steel assets

Tahmoor Coal Handling Plant leads the way on safety

Safety is one of our key priorities at GFG, and we can all learn from the sites and businesses with strong safety records. The Tahmoor Coal Handling plant provides a great example, achieving an incredible six years Lost Time Injury (LTI) free this year.

It wasn’t always this way though. Back in 2013, injuries at the site were trending up, so the team decided to host a safety intervention to flush out issues and find solutions.

Speaking about outcomes, Jason Prestwidge our Coal Handing Plant Manager said, “In the end, there were no silver bullets, just ownership and accountability. We all agreed that we were each in control of our day-to-day actions and that there is a difference between urgency and rushing.”

These sentiments are still held to this day.

“Within our safety culture there is no org chart. We all stand on the same level, enabling each of us to be pulled up for unsafe practices without prejudice,” Jason said.

ARC Commercial Improvement Program delivers results

ARC is already seeing benefits from their Commercial Improvement Program (part of our Fit for Future approach), with strong commercial results since its inception in September 2018.

Designed to deliver continuous improvement through initiatives aimed at value creation for both ARC customers and the bottom line, it has exceeded its targets to date and is on track to deliver big benefits for the business this financial year.

ARC General Manager, Sean Mannering is pleased with the results and its future potential, saying, “We’re seeing really strong, sustainable outcomes from this program. We’ve embedded new processes and deployed new tools, including weekly Result Actions Reviews (RARs) which are driving accountability and long-term results.”

Contact James Wagland, our ARC Strategic Planning Manager at James.Wagland@arcreo.com.au for more information.

Mental health awareness gains traction across the group

Liberty Recycling, SIMEC Mining and Austube Mills are taking strong steps forward in helping us to build a resilient workforce.

Initiatives like Mental Health First Aid training, mental health toolbox talks, and Mates in Mining/Mates in Construction training programs are driving mental health awareness and giving us the tools to keep our people well.

Liberty Recycling Training and Assurance Partner, Michael Petrov is pleased with the traction. “We have 42 people across the Recycling business qualified as Mental Health First Aiders and are looking to train an additional 20. These sessions are helping us break down barriers and making it ok to talk about mental health,” he said.

Austube Mills is also seeing progress. David Gonzalez, Austube Mills Safety, Environment and Compliance Manager said: “These sessions are giving us the tools to help our fellow workmates who may be doing it tough.”

Chat to your local health and safety representative to learn more.

We also offer free, confidential and professional counselling for GFG Alliance employees and members of their family. Converge International – 1300 687 327, Access Programs (For Whyalla based employees) – 1300 667 308.

Aussie steel underpins nation-building Inland Rail project

Proof of our ability to deliver on significant projects, about 14,000 tonnes of Australian-made steel from our Liberty Primary Steel operations has already been provided to the nation-building Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) Inland Rail Project.

ARTC’s CEO of the Inland Rail Project, Richard Wankmuller said it was great to see Aussie steel underpinning the project.

“The construction underway and supply of steel rail to the Inland Rail project is an example of how a project – that has been talked about for generations – will benefit all Australians for the next 100 years,” said Richard.

Theuns Victor, Liberty Primary Steel Executive Managing Director (acting), said the business was proud to contribute to projects of the scale and importance of Inland Rail.

“Our Whyalla steelworks has forged a close relationship with ARTC over many years, and we are continuing to explore opportunities for the possible supply of our high-quality rail into future stages of this vital infrastructure project,” he said.

Read more

Liberty’s supply chain transparency contributes to Transform

Demonstrating our core values of sustainability and change, Liberty’s Rob Johnson and David McNeil participated in panel conversations with key industry representatives at the Green Building Council of Australia’s TRANSFORM conference, held in Sydney, to explore the issues around supply chain transparency and the challenges with change in this complex environment.

Speaking first, alongside Robin Mellon, Chief Executive Officer of the Supply Chain Sustainability School and Kate Harris, Chief Executive Officer of industry certification body GECA, Rob Johnson highlighted the unique proposition afforded by Liberty’s supply chain model.

“Our fully integrated supply chain model gives customers confidence. We have transparency & traceability over the products we manufacture at each node in the Supply Chain,” Rob said.

David McNeil, in his capacity as Chair of the Technology Committee at the Australian Logistics Council, shed light on some of the best practices, tools and technologies to assist with supply chain management – using Liberty’s digital supply chain management practice as an example.

“Data is the key to supply chain integrity, and we have adapted a very simple idea to help us with this,” David said.

Austube Mills customer sessions fuel market knowledge

This year, the Austube Mills (ATM) team launched regular training sessions to educate the tubular market and broader engineering community on the value of the business’ products & unique service offering.

Arun Syam, ATM Industry and Business Development Manager/Engineer, who has been leading the training said, “these sessions are reinvigorating the ATM business by driving market awareness and fuelling knowledge.”

“The intent is to educate not only our customers, but also to reach end users like engineers and fabricators so they can hear directly from the experts,” he added.

So far more than 10 sessions have been held and we’re already seeing positive results. “Our message about the value of ATM products and the business more broadly as an Australian-based manufacturing partner is well and truly getting out there,” Arun said.

Name our new schools training program

We’re about to launch a new schools training program through the GFG Foundation and we need your help finding a name for it.

The program will be similar to the UK Industrial Cadets – a training program allowing employers to run accredited experiences for young people to help them explore potential industrial careers.

It will involve visits to steelworks, mines and renewable projects, and provide mentorship opportunities with GFG employees, eventually expanding to include other industrial businesses keen to help youth get a head-start.

The name needs to communicate either what the program is about, e.g. ‘Industrial Training’ or the benefit of the program, e.g. ‘Bright Sparks Program’. We’re also looking for something that refers to GFG in some way. Note: we can’t use the word ‘Cadets’ as it indicates it’s a tertiary program, when we’re looking to run a schools program.

To enter, submit your suggestions via this form by 5pm Friday, 10 May – you can submit up to 10 entries.

For more information, please contact Jonny Samengo, GFG Foundation Chief Operating Officer on 0411 549 409, or jonny.samengo@gfgalliance.com

You can also follow the Foundation in Australia on their Facebook group –  GFG Foundation Australia.

EU approves Liberty bid for ArcelorMittal European steel assets

We recently received approval from the EU to acquire ArcelorMittal’s seven European steel plants in Romania, the Czech Republic, Macedonia, Italy, Belgium and Luxembourg. While we are still working through details, we expect to complete the milestone acquisition in the third quarter of this year.

The addition of these operations will deliver over 10 Mtpa liquid and 15 Mtpa rolling capacity globally under GFG Alliance, which, when accompanied with our ambitious Whyalla Next Gen project, our mining expansion plans, and other growth projects around the world, will take our global steel production to over 25 Mtpa by 2025.

This landmark acquisition provides us the opportunity to bring together all of our UK steel and engineering assets, the Australian Liberty primary steelworks in Whyalla, our high-quality Australian iron ore and metallurgical coal mines, and, once completed, the seven European steel plants being acquired from ArcelorMittal into one merged entity. Combined, these assets will help us to form an internationally competitive integrated steel champion, from raw materials in Australia to steel products globally, under the banner of Liberty Steel and Mining.

The new entity would exclude GFG’s recycling and building products businesses in Australia and the USA.

Read more.