In the middle of an endless cycle
Nobody melts steel in New Zealand anymore in any great quantity. That’s been the big change in the local scrap market,” comments Metal Solutions director Dave Fretwell. “Ten years or so back, when the Pacific Steel Mill in Otahuhu was operating, most steel scrap went there, with a small amount exported.”
Since then, the industry has turned
180 degrees, much to the benefit of scrap dealers like MSL.
“The advantage of things now is a little company like ours has very similar selling clout to the likes of the big companies, though they have higher volume and break bulk load, whereas we’re containerising.”
Whakatane-born and with a background in agricultural engineering, Dave’s journey into the world of scrap began more than three decades ago, having spent 12 years in engineering, then 20 years with other scrap metal companies before starting MSL in 2012 in partnership with his wife Jo.
“Jo is now semi-retired, though she still does quite a bit in the background. Building the business, I could never have done it without her support and her nous … I can sit down with her and have the conversation about a big spend, where the value is, the clients we’re trying to look after, and the solutions having someone with that ability and support is awesome,” he says with a smile.
“Twelve years ago, I started trading and buying surplus steel pipe off a job in Waikato. We built a whole market supplying steel culvert and casing pipes, mostly into the farming and forestry sectors, and we needed to replace that stock, so we began to think about importing. It was all new territory and interesting at first; we learnt a few lessons.”
They decided to stick with import of steel pipes and plate. “We have big rollers and we cut pipes to length, make sockets, flood gates, and wing walls … That’s all done from here, too.”
It didn’t take long for some of Dave’s old customers to approach MSL about doing scrap again. “And a couple of months later, I was looking for a truck,” he says.
“I bought an old 2003 Volvo hook truck and rejigged it slightly with a crane behind the cab – so it was a crane hook, my one truck that did everything. We got busier and ended up needing another, and a trailer … as it goes.
“That original Volvo is still going up in Auckland.”
Today, MSL services clients in the upper North Island and enjoys a close working relationship with Waiotahi Transport, which moves MSL’s containers directly to port. “We do a significant tonnage of export scrap in containers to the port. Steven Clayton at Waiotahi gives us great service; he’s all over it, and great to deal with.
“Scrap steel goes to many overseas markets to be recycled into new steel. Steel is an endless-cycle material. You can just keep melting and reusing it,” Dave says.
With the prospect of New Zealand
Steel’s $300-million Glenbrook electric arc furnace on the horizon, which would likely be able to process all the country’s export scrap steel volume, the scrap market could be in for another major turnabout in the next few years.
“In the past, it was nice to melt in Auckland, but you had all this local freight and the cost of getting scrap to Auckland [as opposed to local ports],” Dave comments. “KiwiRail’s promised container terminal at Kawerau will open the option to look at containerised train loads; it’s an ideal product to put on rail.”
system, with a few additional planet-friendly acronyms to help it reach the current level of emissions compliancy mandated on its home continent. We’re all familiar with the diesel particulate filter (DPF) and selective catalytic reduction (SCR), but there’s also now a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and a clean up catalyst (CUC). They are all neatly positioned behind the right-hand second steer in what appears a surprisingly compact aftertreatment package.
Back at base, Shannon makes a quick swap-out of bins once more and, since the FM is on around-town hiab duty, he hooks up its Koromiko tipping tub trailer to load up for a transfer to Metalco Te Puke. Before leaving, he crosses the on-site Neville Marsh 50T weighbridge. “It’s fantastic, exceptionally accurate,” comments Dave. “We bought a pit weighbridge for a permanent installation, but, with this one, we’ve just never seen the need for it.”
The T-Way is also fitted with SI Lodec scales, a must for a job where the contents and weight of the bin can be a bit of a lottery. “One of the big issues with hook trucks is you’ll often turn up to pick up a bin, and you don’t know what is in it,” he says.
“Sometimes it’s too heavy, and sometimes the payload is okay, but we’re overloaded on one of the axles.” The onboard scales allow Shannon to monitor the axle groups and adjust the bin position accordingly.
Metalco’s scrap deposits now a few tonnes greater, we shoot over to the truck dismantlers at the other end of town for the next bin rotation. This sort of local pick-up, drop-off and swap-out work makes up most of the T-Way’s duties. It does however get to stretch its legs fairly frequently, too. Tomorrow, it’ll be loaded to the brim with non-ferrous metals (aluminium, copper, etc) destined for Phoenix Metalman in Takanini. The 12m flatdeck will be in tow, loaded with full ‘pallets’ – bales all stacked and strapped – and ‘pods’ – IBCs with the tops chopped off.
“This is the metal we don’t have enough volume of to export ourselves,” explains Dave. “So we sell it to them. We would have to wait a long time to justify doing a 20-tonne export load of copper, for example, and it would also impact our cashflow.”
Nitty gritty
We meet Shannon at 6am outside the Mainfreight depot on Truman Lane, Papamoa, where he stops to check his load. Rated at 50MAX, the
T-Way is running to Auckland at 49,878kg GCM. With the Kaimais and Bombays ahead of us, we’ll have a couple of opportunities to put its 10hp/tonne potential to the test on the open road – though bearing in mind that, at just 7600km [when we went for our run with Shannon], the
T-Way is still loosening up.
Our prior local jobs already proved the T-Way’s ease of manoeuvrability. With its 5820mm wheelbase, IVECO quotes a 21,300mm kerb-tokerb turning radius. For the odd off-road job, the 29-degree approach angle, 16-degree departure angle and 22-degree ramp angle all combine with the 312mm minimum front ground clearance afforded by that straight front axle (286mm at the rear).
“The first load I did with it, I was at an exit race at a cow shed – they’re renowned for being slippery and getting stuck. I just left the lockers on, and it was fine. When I was doing ag work, the last thing you’d want was to get stuck. I’d love to know how bad it has to be for this to get stuck!” enthuses Shannon. Plucky.
“When Dave asked me if I’d drive an IVECO, I said, ‘Yeah, they drive them in the Dakar! They’re a strong truck, they love off-road!’” he says with a laugh. Rocking mode, off-road mode, creeping mode, and diff cross locks are among the many tools in the T-Way’s ‘get out of jail’ arsenal. Intelligent.
Day-cab trucks can look a little awkward, depending a lot on what’s mounted to the chassis behind it. The T-Way
8x4 is offered with two cabs: AD (1700mm length) and AT (2150mm length, including a 540mm-wide lower bunk). Both measure 2300mm wide and 3100mm high. The MSL truck is an AD cab, but in no way does it look awkward – nuggety, remember – or indeed feel cramped once aboard.
“It’s a good space. I’ve come out of bonneted day cabs, and it didn’t matter what I did, I was uncomfortable. I just couldn’t move the seat back enough.
This has a telescoping steering wheel, so I put that as high as it goes. I put the seat as far back as it goes, and I’m happy,” comments Shannon, and as a
6ft 5in bloke, that’s saying a lot. It’s quiet, too, averaging about 68db at a cruise, rising to about 72db under load.