Kenmore’s K30m steel plant in Tari

THE Kenmore Group will put up a K30 million plant in Tari, Hela province, to produce steel products for the upcoming liquefied natural gas (LNG) project.
Kenmore’s third steel plant in the country under Atlas Steel PNG will manufacture iron roofing sheets, nails, steel and wire fencing and steel frames.
These products are currently being produced by Atlas Steel in Lae and Port Moresby.
The new factory would mainly supply steel products to Hela and the rest of the Highland provinces.
A groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant was held last Friday at Piribu village, just outside of Tari town, with TariPori MP and Education Minister James Marape and Allan Fleay, general manager Kenmore Industrial devision, in attendance.
Mr Fleay said the new Atlas Steel factory would be the group’s third in the country, after Lae and Port Moresby.
Employing about 100 skilled and semi-skilled workers, the factory expects to have its first output by middle of next year.
Mr Fleay said it was a tough decision for Kenmore to build the factory in Tari which does not have electricity, telecommunications and other basic services.
However, he said Kenmore had “confidence” in the Hela people and its  leadership led by Southern Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru.
Mr Fleay said the raw materials for the factory would be transported from Lae port.
He said with the projected opening of the new Gulf-Southern Highlands highway, raw materials would also be outsourced via Kopi port at Kikori.