News

What do they supply: reinforced steel components (rings & bars) for reinforcement cages for the 334 tower foundations on Line 5, from Dinawan to Wagga Wagga, and some steel reinforcement cages for Line 2

When did they start on the project: mid 2023

With more than 28 years’ experience in the steel industry, Wayne Green worked for a fencing business for a few years before establishing Absolute Mesh and Steel (AMS) in Wagga Wagga eight years ago, with an offering spanning custom residential fencing to reinforcing mesh and steel for large-scale construction.

Fast forward, and today AMS is a major supplier of reinforced steel for reinforcement cages for tower foundations on Project EnergyConnect. They’ve moved into new, larger premises, made significant investments in new machinery, and they’re hopeful they might now be in the running for other big infrastructure projects.

“We still have a strong domestic and commercial fencing business but over the last eight years we’ve grown predominantly in the reinforcing space, so reinforcing products form a larger percentage of our total revenue now,” Wayne says.

“When we were looking at tendering for the Elecnor project, we made the decision to reinvest in the business to make sure we were ready for when the project started.”

In the last 12 to 18 months, they’ve been able to invest around $2m back into the business, buying new machinery and automating a lot of what they do.

This includes almost a million dollars on a machine that can cut and bend steel reinforcing bars of up to 32 millimetres in diameter and 12 metres in length – a task that was previously done manually – and half a million dollars on a cage manufacturing machine, in anticipation of more work.

“Having the financial support of being engaged on the project has meant we’ve been able to reinvest back into the business, which in turn has opened us up to more opportunities and given us greater capacity to do other things,” Wayne says.

“It’s been great from an exposure point of view, and it’s given us the confidence to take on other projects.”

Project EnergyConnect is the biggest project AMS has worked on to date but they’re now looking at other major infrastructure projects.

“We’re hoping that we’re in a position now that we’ve been part of the Elecnor project that other projects across the Riverina will see the benefits of using a business like ours,” he says.

Wayne says their headcount hasn’t changed, but by being able to reinvest in the business, they’ve been able to improve efficiency.

“Jobs that we’re doing now with one person and a machine were taking two or three people before,” Wayne explains.

As well, it’s meant AMS could move into bigger and better premises, and they now have a new website.

But for Wayne, one of the highlights of Project EnergyConnect is that local companies have been engaged.

As well as all of his employees being locals, he’s purchased two new half-a-million-dollar semi-trailers locally, the new AMS premises was constructed by locals, and AMS also sponsors a number of local sporting clubs.

“It’s good to be part of a project like this, and be a local business, and all your money is going back into the local community,” he says.