Capacity upgrade for InfraBuild Recycling Laverton

InfraBuild Recycling’s Laverton plant is receiving its biggest upgrade in 20 years with new roads, equipment and weighbridges set to increase capacity and reduce truck turnaround times for customers.

InfraBuild Recycling’s (formerly LIBERTY Recycling) Laverton Plant is undergoing a major redevelopment to increase processing capacity for recycled steel and reduce vehicle turnaround time at the site. The redevelopment includes the expansion of access and internal roadways, and the installation of new processing and materials handling equipment and new weighbridges.

With demand for steel in Australia increasing, driven by the growth in commercial, residential and infrastructure construction, InfraBuild is expanding its capacity for the handling of scrap steel volumes to support the increased production capacity of its Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs), which use scrap steel in the manufacture of new steel.

Among the new equipment to be installed at the Laverton site is:

• a fixed shear that will increase processing capacity
• a telestacker and truck unloader to reduce vehicle turnaround times and increase the rate at which material can be delivered
• four new B-double weighbridges to further reduce vehicle turnaround time.

In addition, the redevelopment will include the upgrade of roads and tipping areas to allow increased traffic and scrap volume flows. Some 15,000sqm of new concrete pavement will be laid in total, with 100 tonnes of reinforcing steel provided by the InfraBuild group.

“The Laverton upgrade is the single largest change in the InfraBuild Recycling Victorian operation in 20 years,” InfraBuild Recycling’s State Manager for Victoria, Gary Dowling, said. “It will deliver significant benefits to our customers in terms of faster turnaround times and the increase in production capacity to handle the growth in volumes required by our steelmaking business to ensure Australian-made steel is available for all the infrastructure work happening in Victoria and around the country.”

Major works on the redevelopment project commenced in May 2018 with equipment installed progressively at the site from June. The project is scheduled to complete in March 2019 when the static shear is fully commissioned and operational.

Main image: Newly installed telestacker in operation.