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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-09-23 Daily Xml
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STEEL BUILDING SYSTEMS

The Hon. L. STEVENS (Little Para) (14:42): Will the Minister for the Northern Suburbs inform the house of developments regarding an international export deal for an Elizabeth-based housing company?

The Hon. J.M. RANKINE (Wright—Minister for Families and Communities, Minister for Northern Suburbs, Minister for Housing, Minister for Ageing, Minister for Disability) (14:42): Last week I was pleased to visit Superloc® Steel Building Systems (SBS) at its site at Elizabeth West as it made an exciting transition into the Middle Eastern construction market. SBS is a wonderfully innovative South Australian company. It employs around 200 people and provides work to about 500 contractors here in South Australia. Now based in the northern suburbs, the company began nearly 20 years ago as a small plant in Adelaide's west manufacturing components for housing and commercial construction.

The business has continued to grow and prosper, and today is a leading international provider of light gauge steel technology and manufactures what it believes is the best steel framing system in the world. Indicative of the company's growing success, SBS is now taking a massive leap into one of the world's largest building markets with the shipping of 12 containers full of machinery to Abu Dhabi to build factories producing steel products for housing.

I was at its site last Tuesday for the loading of the first shipment of 90 tonnes of equipment to build a new facility in the Middle East as part of a joint venture announced last year. We know that great things are happening in Adelaide's north, and this joint venture with a United Arab Emirates company to establish a Superloc® steel framing facility in Abu Dhabi is fantastic for South Australia. The $100 million expansion into the United Arab Emirates will mean that the company supplies components and software, as well as plant and equipment, for the booming construction market.

The Superloc® system provides major benefits in today's massive global housing shortfall by reducing construction time, maximising quality and minimising costs. The Superloc® steel framing solution is set to revolutionise the residential construction techniques in the Middle East. In fact, in the next five years, SBS will build up to six factories in the Middle East which, of course, means a steady stream of work for SBS employees here in South Australia. The factories to be built in the Middle East will be able to manufacture five times the amount of construction material produced in South Australia in any one year. SBS is using such advanced building technology that, if there were a need, the machinery could produce enough steel for an entire house every 45 minutes.

South Australian innovation will now be showcased on an international stage as SBS continues to explore growth into global markets, further expanding its South Australian business despite the current difficult economic climate. The success of SBS is testament to the quality product and services we have being produced in the northern suburbs, and is a great outcome for South Australian business and good news for South Australian workers.

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