Marubeni-Itochu Steel to Expand Plate Processing in Australia

Marubeni-Itochu Steel announced on Thursday the wholly owned subsidiary, Total Steel of Australia expands plate processing capacity at Brisbane and Melbourne for around 900 million yen. The firm tries to meet higher demand for mining machinery and materials. The firm starts the expanded capacity in February 2007 expanding the total capacity by 10% to annual 60,000 tonnes. The firm moves the Brisbane branch to industrial park located 30 kilometers southwest of Brisbane where is near coal mining sites. The firm adds a plate shearing machine to the plant. The firm also adds a plate shearing machine to Melbourne branch to expand the capacity. The new Brisbane branch will have 2 plate shearing machines on the 15,000 square meters of land. The Melbourne branch has also 2 shearing machine on 18,000 square meters of land. High grade plate demand expands in Australia when mining houses try to expand the operation to meet higher demand of steel making raw materials. The firm tries to expand the processing capacity to meet the growing demand.