Smelter gets its 90 extra staff
The Tiwai Point aluminium smelter has employed most if its 90 extra staff and is now training them, bringing the total number of workers at the plant to 900, including contractors.
Smelter general manager Stewart Hamilton said the 90 new staff was the smelter’s biggest recruitment drive since the 1990s.
Most of the 90 jobs jobs related to the fourth potline at the smelter, which was now being restarted and should be operational by the end of the year, and the subsequent increased metal production due to the increased orders.
The smelter had also introduced a trainee operator hub [12 new roles] and 10 new roles in training, while the casting facility would now run 24/7, meaning additional labour was required.
Retirees were also being replaced, Hamilton said.
Most of the 90 new staffers were from Southland and had already been employed and were in the process of being trained.
It was a challenge to bring people from an outside environment to an industrial high-tech environment, Hamilton said. ‘‘We have to make sure people are aware of the safety hazards and risks, know how to operate the equipment and be able to do it in a timely and quality fashion.’’
It was also an opportunity to inject some new thinking and new ways of doing things. ‘‘We just have to go through the process to make sure they are inducted properly to get there.’’
Tiwai was historically a maledominated environment, but there is a drive to get more women into the workforce.
The percentage of women on site had risen from about 6 per cent to nearly 8 per cent following the latest recruitment drive.
‘‘We have still got a way to go but it’s a good start.’’
The plant’s fourth potline – a production line for the conversion of alumina into aluminium, was shut in April 2012, because of historically low aluminium prices globally.
About 20 employees at Tiwai are now more than two months into a six month task to restart the fourth potline.
Once up and running, it would increase aluminium production at the smelter by 31,000 tonnes a year, a 9 per cent increase in overall production at the site. ‘‘It’s bringing back on capacity what was taken off [six years ago],’’ Hamilton said. Line 4 restart manager Darren Campbell said the recruitment and training of the new people had taken up the most time.
The six-month job to restart the potline included refurbishing and setting up the potline’s 48 production cells [pots], testing the equipment and refurbishing equipment as required, making sure all the parts were working and turning on the electric current to start producing aluminium. It was costing ‘‘millions’’ to restart the fourth potline.
A combination of factors had made it possible for it to be restarted, including rising aluminium prices and having access to a stable supply of electricity following a contract agreement with Meridian after extensive consultation.
‘‘The line four contract with Meridian goes through until the end of 2022, so we have a four-year contract which gives us the certainty,’’ Hamilton said. ‘‘Once line four is on, Tiwai produces 2.4 per cent of New Zealand’s export revenue.’’
It was good news for the medium-term future of the smelter, he said. ‘‘The more aluminium we are producing, so long as it’s productive, means it’s better for the long term viability at the smelter.’’
The smelter’s major power contract goes until 2030. ‘‘My focus is to set the smelter up until 2030, and maybe beyond.’’