On 13 July 2022, our Basic Oxygen Steelmaking (BOS) facility at the Port Kembla Steelworks celebrates its 50th anniversary! This is a crucial piece of our manufacturing infrastructure in Australia, which converts liquid iron into steel.

To mark this significant milestone, we spoke to people at the BOS about their experiences working at the site and how things have changed.

Links and Show Notes

• Read a transcript of the episode.


• Explore a collection of further video interviews in the TVBlueScope YouTube playlist: 50 Years of Basic Oxygen Steelmaking.


• FocusOn Basic Oxygen Steelmaking — the BOS (TVBlueScope video)


• 8. Modern-day Pioneers of the BOS (Voices of BlueScope podcast episode)


• Bundy cards (e-commerce page, not a sponsored inclusion)


• FocusOn Continuous Casting (TVBlueScope video) — reference to slabmaking


• A lime kiln is a kiln in which limestone is burnt or calcined to produce quicklime.


• COLORBOND® steel


• Learn more about blast furnace technology and future plans in Major Projects at the Port Kembla Steelworks (TVBlueScope video).


• Slag is stony by-product that is separated from metals during the smelting or refining of ore.


• In the episode, Fadel refers to the Kembla Times; instead, see him photographed as a featured employee (left) in Volume 1 Issue 010 of BHP Flat Chat from July 1997, which celebrated the 25th anniversary of the BOS. (The PDF excerpt includes relevant pages one and six.)


• Namibia


• Blue Boots is the name given to a long-term recruitment campaign by BlueScope in Australia, which has encouraged people with diverse backgrounds, genders and skills to join our manufacturing operations.


• PPE stands for personal protective equipment.


• Illawarra


• Warrawong, New South Wales


• A boilermaker is someone who makes metal boilers for generating steam or a metalworker in heavy industry.


• John Nowlan is Chief Executive at BlueScope Australian Steel Products.


• Our Bond


• Ramirro refers to the 'iLabs at the CRM'; to learn more, watch FocusOn BlueScope's Innovation Laboratories (TVBlueScope video).


• Andrew Collins is Product Prototyping & Evaluation Manager at BlueScope Australian Steel Products.


• Profilometry


• Edward refers to a 'hydrogen furnace'; learn more about pilot-scale hydrogen electrolyser technology in Electrical Energy into Chemical Energy (TVBlueScope video).


• LTI stands for lost-time injury.


• 1600 degrees Celsius


• Interested to see what a podcast looks like? View a screenshot of the editing timeline for this episode.

Edited by Martin Feld