A new 15,000 square-metre steel warehouse in Drury, south of Auckland, can store twice the amount of steel used to build the Auckland harbour bridge.
The $42 million site was designed and built for the privately-owned steel importing business Asmuss, as it prepares to provide products to major infrastructure projects in the North Island.
“We are confident that the market will pick up again, there’s just so much infrastructure investment required in New Zealand,” Asmuss Steel & Flow Control chief executive Dean Brown told Markets with Madison.
“We want to be ready.”
But the market was tough currently, he said, and likely would be for another year.
“We’re on the bottom, we’re waiting for it to pick up.”
The steel stacked in the warehouse was pre-purchased stock and was yet to be sold to projects, but Brown was confident it would be in demand eventually.
“Asmuss has been around for 100 years, we’ve weathered many cycles, this we see as just another cycle and you’ve just got to hold your nerve.”
Steel importer Asmuss has leased a new purpose-built 15,000 square-metre warehouse facility in Drury, south of Auckland. Photo / Ben Dickens - NZ Herald
Asmuss was started in 1920 by Henry Asmuss. It imports steel beams and pipes from mills around the world, including from China, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea and Australia.
Its products have been behind some of the country’s most significant builds, including the Marsden Point former oil refinery, the Waikato River hydro dams owned by Mercury, Meridian’s Huntly Power Station and the Wellington waterfront stadium.
Source - NZ Herald
