The new factory will be built at the existing BlueScope Western Sydney Service Centre in Erskine Park. Photo: BlueScope.
A newly approved $320 million BlueScope Steel factory in Western Sydney has been slated as a means of boosting local jobs and increasing the state’s housing supply.
With construction completion slated for 2025, the new facility is expected to produce about 240,000 new Colorbond steel rooftops per year, or 80,000 new steel house frames.
NSW Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully said the approval of the factory signified a step in the right direction for supporting increased housing supply and economic growth.
“The project is a major $320 million investment into the future of domestic steelmaking and will play an important role in supporting housing and infrastructure,” he said.
“It’s a vote of confidence in NSW, helping to meet current and future demand for the sector, providing the locally sourced materials we need to build homes, hospitals, renewable energy and transport infrastructure.
“The demand will be met with a higher volume of materials able to be sent from Port Kembla to the new factory, which is being built on the existing BlueScope site [in Erskine Park].”
The Western Sydney community is also set to benefit from more than 300 new jobs, with 43 ongoing jobs at the plant and about 258 jobs during the construction process.
BlueScope chief executive of Australian steel products Tania Archibald said the plan was to have the plant commissioned and operational by the end of 2025.
“The NSW Planning Minister’s decision to provide planning approval for this State Significant Project will allow BlueScope to progress the construction of a new, state-of-the-art, metal coating line, the first to be built in over 30 years,” she said.
“The manufacturing facility will allow BlueScope to better meet the growing demand for steel building and construction products.
NSW Premier Chris Minns also joined in welcoming the new manufacturing facility as “exactly the kind of innovation we want to see in NSW”.
