Rollpress Beacons Help Keep Coal Exports on Track

Steel navigation beacons manufactured by Brisbane company Rollpress Proplate Group are part of a major upgrade which will increase Hay Point's lead as the world's largest coal export port.

The improvements at Hay Point, 40 kilometres south of Mackay, centre on a A$70 million dredging program, the largest to be undertaken in the Southern Hemisphere this year. The works will boost annual export capacity to more than 90 million tonnes, ahead of traditional coal export rivals Newcastle (New South Wales) and Richards Bay (South Africa).

Hay Point has two separate coal export terminals, Dalrymple Bay Coal Terminal (leased from the State Government by the private company, Prime Infrastructure), and the Hay Point Services Coal Terminal, owned and operated by BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA).

The two terminals serve the many coal mines of Central Queensland to which they are linked through an integrated rail port network. The Ports Corporation of Queensland is the port authority for Hay Point.

Ship loading occurs at off shore wharves which are serviced by conveyor systems, supported on jetties, which run up to 3.8 kilometres out to sea and allow loading in deep water. Rollpress Proplate Group has provided piles for Hay Point since the facilities were first established.

"We've supplied marine piling and navigation beacons to most of the ports on Australia's East Coast as well as to some on the west coast," Rollpress Proplate Group's General Manager of Sales, Marketing and Production, Richard Kearns, said.

"Rollpress Proplate Group has evolved out of the merger of a couple of companies, but basically we have been involved in the piling business for 40 years and have the equipment and expertise to tackle any job."

With a workforce of almost 180 and 22,000 square metres under roof, Rollpress Proplate Group is a one-stop shop for delivering integrated steel processing services. It has extensive experience specialising in cutting, rolling and pressing of steel plate and sections.

Rollpress is a Quality Endorsed company. Its Quality Management system is certified to AS/NZS ISO 9002:1994 by Quality Assurance Services.

"For the Hay Point project we manufactured steel pile sections up to 14.5 metres in length from Grade 450 XLERPLATE® steel," Richard Kearns said. "The sections were welded together at Hay Point by Smithbridge (Australia) Pty Ltd. and have a completed length of up to 46 metres. There is a progressive thickness change from 16mm to 40mm over the length of the four piles and the XLERPLATE® steel for each section was rolled into ‘cans' and then 100 per cent sub arc welded before undergoing surface treatment with interzone 485UHB to 1000HMDFT."

The navigation beacons are unusually large, with a diameter of two metres and utilised almost 250 tonnes of XLERPLATE® steel. They are designed to be visible to marine pilots and ships' masters even in rough weather with swells up to 10 metres.

They will mark Hay Point's departure channel which is being widened to 500 metres for the first 500 metres and to 300 metres for the next nine kilometres. The four beacons each have a solar powered six nautical mile LED navigation light and use a GPS system to ensure they flash in synchronisation.

The outermost beacon also has an automatic tide gauge and a RACON radar beacon attached. All equipment is remotely monitored and controlled by Maritime Safety Queensland. Functional design for the beacons was by Queensland Transport with structural design by Connell Hatch.

Rollpress Proplate Group had previously used a mixture of XLERPLATE® steel from BlueScope Steel and imported steel, but has switched over to XLERPLATE® steel almost exclusively.

"Quality, availability and short lead times were the major reasons for the switch," Richard Kearns said. "We also saw advantage in being associated with the BlueScope Steel name. Many large customers now have an expectation that we use quality Australian steel.

"When we use XLERPLATE® steel we never have a quality related problem. On the other hand with imported material we have experienced laminations and have also run into problems because material has not been to the required specification."

"With all our experience we have built up a lot of specialist knowledge within the Rollpress Proplate Group, but when we do require technical assistance we can always get that through BlueScope Steel. We do that when we use a special product or when we are dealing with an application where the steel hasn't been used before or has only had limited use."

Richard Kearns said a strong working relationship with BlueScope Steel's Queensland Sales Manager Tony Fotea assisted this process. Recently, Rollpress Proplate Group's use of XLERPLATE® steel from BlueScope Steel completed a virtual return journey for some 3,200 tonnes of the product.

The company is currently supplying steel piles for a wharf expansion project at Port Kembla in New South Wales, adjacent to the BlueScope Steel steelworks.