Why Newcastle’s Next Steel Mill Has No Chimneys: Patrick Buchan, Head of Government Relations at Greensteel Australia

Australia hasn’t built a new steel mill in over 30 years. Patrick Buchan says that’s about to change, and the way his company is doing it says a lot about where local manufacturing is headed next.

In this episode of Engineering in the Hunter, James MacDonald sits down with Patrick Buchan, President of Greensteel Australia – Head of Corporate Affairs, to unpack a $500 million, all-electric steel mill going up on the old BHP site at Mayfield. They get into the zero-emissions electric arc technology behind it, the government policy shifts that made the deal possible, why Newcastle beat out the rest of the country for the site, and what 200 new jobs, open to anyone regardless of formal qualifications, means for the next generation of Hunter tradespeople.

It’s also a personal conversation: Patrick on watching cricket with his dad as a kid, on why he thinks Australia is still the best place in the world to have a go, and on what steel sovereignty actually means for a country’s ability to build and defend itself.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Patrick Buchan is Head of Government Relations at Greensteel Australia, the company behind a $500 million, all-electric steel mill under construction at Mayfield, Newcastle, Australia’s first new steel plant in more than three decades. Before Greensteel, he spent four years on the policy staff of the US Office of the Secretary of Defense inside the Pentagon, working across both the Obama and Trump administrations.

Engineering in the Hunter is produced by DayOne.

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Transcript

Auto-transcribed with AI.

Patrick Buchan [0:00]: $500 million, 200 jobs, and a steel mill back here in the home of steel in Australia — right here in the Hunter, producing from first quarter 2028.

James MacDonald [0:09]: Mate, I can’t not have you on the podcast and ask about the Pentagon, because I think you’re the only person I’ve had on the podcast that’s spent some time there.

Patrick Buchan [0:15]: I worked there across both the Obama and the Trump administration — the first Trump administration.

If you think about renewables and what’s called sustainable manufacturing, it’s not some pie in the sky. It’s here. The technology is here, and it’s good for business, but it’s also good for the environment. And that’s a tick, mate.

There’s a reason you’re watching this. It’s okay for me to sit behind this anonymous screen and bag the person out, but it’s the person in the arena that’s having a go, that’s willing to take a risk. Australia provides that. We’ve come to this wonderful country that’s provided us the opportunity to take a go. We’ve got that ethos. But this is not ethereal for us. We’re signed, we’re ready to go — the advanced Danieli technology that we will deploy to be able to do 600,000 tonnes of rebar here in New South Wales, here in the Hunter, at scale, at speed, in the first quarter of 2028.

James MacDonald [1:03]: Today’s episode, I’m sharing one of the most exciting stories that has happened in Newcastle in all of 2026. One of the most exciting stories for engineering and manufacturing that’s happened in the Hunter for quite some time. I’m talking with Patrick Buchan. He is the President of Green Steel Australia and Head of Corporate Affairs. We’re talking about steelmaking coming back to the Hunter, why Green Steel chose the Hunter region, the tradition, the nostalgia, and also the new technologies they’re using in steelmaking. It’s an exciting episode. It was a good conversation with Patrick — exciting news for the greater Hunter region, bringing steel back to Newcastle.

Welcome to another episode of Engineering in the Hunter. On today’s episode we have Patrick Buchan. He’s the President of Green Steel Australia and heads up Corporate Affairs. Welcome, Pat.

Patrick Buchan [1:51]: Thanks, James. Thanks for having me. It’s so good to be here on your podcast, and up here in the Hunter.

James MacDonald [1:56]: Thanks for making the effort to come up to the Hunter. We’re going to get into the big steel story, which is one of the most exciting things and announcements to come to the Hunter in recent times. But give a bit of context on your background. Give us a bit of context on your career to date, and what brought you to Green Steel.

Patrick Buchan [2:14]: Yeah, James. I don’t come out of the steel industry originally. I think so many people of our generation probably don’t, because there was that generational leap, wasn’t there, from the 90s, where Australia and much of the Western world sort of got out of the steel business.

For myself — grew up in Melbourne, school down there, university in Melbourne. I went to Canberra, I worked in Canberra in policy, and I worked on a lot of international policy. And that really gave me that love of bigger issues about what drives global economies, national security, and how those interplay. When you think about it, what are the big things that drive global economies, that drive international politics? Well, it’s things like energy, and manufacturing, and of course software has been the other key area of influence. So I naturally gravitated towards — when my time in government was ending, and I was moving into the corporate sector — manufacturing was something that fascinated me, particularly steel.

James MacDonald [3:24]: I can’t not have you on the podcast and ask about the Pentagon, because I think you’re the only person I’ve had on the podcast that’s spent some time there. Talk to me a little bit about your time in the US, and then we’ll get back into the Green Steel.

Patrick Buchan [3:36]: Yeah, sure, James. I spent four years working in the Pentagon, on what’s called the policy staff of the Office of the Secretary of Defense. So, as you’d see in TV and the movies, on what they call the E-ring — there’s five rings to the Pentagon, and that’s where the Secretary’s staff are. I worked there across both the Obama and the Trump administration — the first Trump administration.

Our job was looking at, what’s the future look like — five-year, ten-year planning — how do we deal with the big political and economic changes that are happening in the world, what capabilities, budgets and so on the United States could put towards managing those changes. Particularly if you think of the times that I was there. China had risen as a near-peer of the United States. There were still wars going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Russia had very much changed its characteristic — although those who understood a little bit about Eurasian politics knew Russia’s characteristics were never going to change, it just sort of morphed after the end of the Soviet Union. So we were dealing with fascinating big geopolitical changes to the system.

Before the podcast, you and I were talking about how the world has changed very much since what was called the post-war order, where the United States was omnipresent, we had the UN system, we had international systems and organisations that govern the world. And there’s no question that’s changed now. And I was there at that really fascinating time when those changes were occurring.

I think the United States had lost a lot of confidence in itself after what came to be known as the never-ending wars in the Middle East. When people ask me what were the big things that took me by surprise in the four years I was there — the rise of the ISIS phenomenon was fascinating and horrifying, but so quick that it occurred. And I think that’s symbolic of the world, of how quickly issues and changes come out of seemingly nowhere. That’s the big change in the last 20 or 30 years — how fast issues pop out of nowhere, and how policymakers have to deal with that.

James MacDonald [6:01]: And the way you talk about it really opens my eyes and gives me good insight into why you’re going to be successful in the current role — that understanding of policy. We might as well go straight into that. How has policy in Australia helped facilitate the big move that’s coming with Green Steel into the Hunter? How important is that background skill set that you’ve got in setting you up for success in what you’re doing now?

Patrick Buchan [6:25]: I think it’s an understanding of how government and industry and society must interact with one another. If we step back a little bit here — Australia and much of the Western world, from about the early 90s, but really accelerating from the mid-to-late 90s, we saw manufacturing decrease massively as it went offshore. And why was that? It’s a very simple answer. It was labour cost, right? So, going to countries like India, China, Vietnam, companies offshored. Tariffs, international barriers, were coming down. It was the great era of neoliberal free trade. So with that occurring, Australia lost an edge in manufacturing because of high labour cost.

However, technology has leapfrogged that again. So what you once perhaps needed a thousand workers to do, you can now do with 100, 200. Technology has enabled us to onshore manufacturing again. I think the second thing is that one of the big lessons we took through COVID — the globe — supply chains are so fragile. And here we are, in our country, at the bottom of the world, and we’re at the end of a very long supply chain from our traditional markets of export, or where we import from.

If you look at those critical inputs to the global economy and the international system, it’s things like oil, it’s steel, it’s microprocessors. If you do not retain sovereignty over those, you are relying on others. And an advanced country of 28 million people like us can’t afford to do that, so far away from our supply chains. Things like COVID — and I think the Trump effect as well — have shown us that if you do not produce these as a nation yourself, you are critically relying on others.

And steel is such a critical input — the critical input — to housing. We all know about the social issues with housing, the housing affordability, and steel. And if needed, for defence, to defend our nation. As we know, the international system, and our political leaders say this, is at the most critical juncture since the Second World War. So having steel, and our ability, if need be, to provide the steel to defend our country — you’ve got to have that yourself. And for too long we were relying on others.

At Green Steel Australia, with what we have announced here in the Hunter, we’re doing 600,000 tonnes of rebar — which, for those listeners who may not know, that’s the critical input into construction. But it allows us a growth path to provide for other steel.

The second thing I want to point out is, how can we do that? Well, we can do that because of the leapfrog in technology and in the labour problems in terms of cost. This technology that we have signed, that we will bring to Australia, with Danieli — the world’s leaders — it does two things. One, you can produce at scale with less humans in the loop. But the second thing is it’s environmentally friendly. And taking all the culture wars off the table about sustainability or renewables — it’s in your own interest to do so, because the international system in terms of markets is demanding now, and civil society is demanding, that industry be more environmentally friendly, as it should be.

James MacDonald [10:27]: So, Pat, I know you’re not in the technology day in, day out, you’re not in the weeds of it, but give us a bit of an overview. What is the new technology, and how does it differ to what we’ve done traditionally?

Patrick Buchan [10:38]: Yeah. So first thing is, when you think steel, you invoke images of smokestacks and sort of Dickensian-looking big steel plants, like out of an old movie, right? And if you go down to places such as Whyalla, you’ll see that. But like driving a Tesla versus my first car, the old Datsun 180B, times have moved on.

Our technology in steelmaking — and I want to say this — there is a myth getting around that things like hydrogen, electric arc furnaces or what have you, are pie in the sky, ethereal technology that’s still yet to be invented. That is not the case, because we bought it. Technology, like so much of our lives, in the steelmaking industry has absolutely leapfrogged. And that is the generation that Green Steel Australia now brings. Our commercial competitors, in places like India and Vietnam and China — as their technology leapfrogged ours, which was built in the 60s, to their 90s technology — we’ve now leapfrogged that.

So let’s talk a little bit about the relationship that Green Steel Australia has with Danieli. The best way to think about Danieli is the Rolls-Royce of steelmaking. The Danieli group have been in the steel business since the early 20th century, but they don’t make steel — they make steel plants. Which is a pretty niche business, and again a fascinating one. You think about the role — not only the commercial, but the vast strategic and political role that plays.

So Danieli’s technology that we will bring here to the Hunter will be a fully electrical steel plant, used through an electric arc furnace, which will produce our rebar. And that technology is currently being built, with signed contracts — please go and google us and you’ll see us at our big signing ceremonies. That’s being built in Italy right now. We will deploy that down here in the first quarter of 2028 to install for operations.

So the best way to describe it is, we will heat the steel to 1,000 degrees through the electric arc furnace, and then you roll that. But there’s no gas, there’s no flame, and there’s no chimneys. Zero flame, zero chimneys, zero gas — all through an electric process.

James MacDonald [13:27]: Just slightly different to what we’ve done traditionally.

Patrick Buchan [13:29]: Yeah. So, exactly — hauling in coal and putting it in your furnace, and then rolling, and the smokestacks. That’s gone. And again, just the way that old cars have gone, that technology’s gone. Right now in the world, with the Danieli technology we’ll bring — there is a plant in Japan that’s using exactly the same process that we’ll bring here to the Hunter to make rebar. And largely our equipment will resemble the existing plant in Japan.

James MacDonald [14:01]: What’s changed in Australia over the past little bit to allow us to actually get to this point again? I know you’ve got that strong policy background, you understand the political game significantly. From a Green Steel perspective, what’s changed to allow us to actually do this? You’ve talked about bringing sovereign manufacturing back to Australia — obviously the technology’s changed, but what’s changed from a political or a policy standpoint to allow us to actually start to do this again?

Patrick Buchan [14:28]: Yeah. I think there are a couple of things there. We talked before about supply chains — the world having a shock at how the system has changed, where perhaps the interconnected trade relationships and free trade that we came to enjoy from the last 30 years, the realisation that that’s more fragile than we thought. That’s point one.

Point two, governments then reflecting that, by putting in incentives and bringing regulatory barriers down to enable Australian manufacturers. Because, again, governments realised that where we offshored so much of our manufacturing, in key strategic capabilities like steel, that probably wasn’t such a great idea. Free trade is fantastic, but there are certain things that you really do need to be able to do yourself. And steel, again — I’ve got a vested interest in saying this, but I think even if I didn’t, I’d say steel is still probably right up there. And I think most people you talk to on the street would agree with that.

So, recognising that, governments have put things in place that allow the onshoring of manufacturing — through faster approval processes, through incentives, through grants and other fiscal incentives like the Future Made in Australia funds and those sorts of initiatives. Which, I’ve got to say — not getting into any partisan political commentary — but very, very grateful to the Albanese federal Labor government, and to the Minns state Labor government, for really having a go and saying, look, let’s not just talk about onshoring manufacturing, but incentivise those that want to get into the game, giving them every access and bringing every barrier we can down to enable that. Again, because Australia needs a steel industry.

James MacDonald [16:31]: And it can’t happen without those incentives, and without actually making that process easier. I think for too long it’s been significantly hard, or challenging, where we need to make that as easy as possible for Australian manufacturing to actually grow again.

Patrick Buchan [16:45]: Of course. I think what we saw over the last decade, in terms of the changes in the international system — and I keep coming back to this, but this fragility that COVID really gave us, and the international tensions that we see around the world — if you don’t have your onshore capabilities for manufacturing, you’re in real trouble if things go south. And what we saw in COVID was, things went south. We all remember the shortages. But imagine a prolonged situation, let’s say, for Australia. We are geographically isolated from what we’d term our close allies. We’d be gone if we didn’t have our own onshore manufacturing to be able to produce the steel, to be able to produce for the Australian housing market, and, as our country grows, to produce steel if needed for our defence sector.

And I think the federal and state governments have realised that perhaps all of us, over the last 30 years, went a little bit too far in offshoring so many things. And that perhaps — our mineral resources sector, and our services sector — well, let’s just rebuild that third arm, the manufacturing sector, and the opportunities, the good jobs, the good technical jobs that it gives Australians to go into.

And that’s exactly what we’ve — I don’t want to say taken advantage of, but the technology has now enabled us to be able to onshore profitably, because of technology. The days of 10,000 people working at a steel plant, they’re gone, okay, and they’re not coming back. But now you can do what once was theirs — you can now do it with 100 or 200 workers, because of technology.

James MacDonald [18:43]: We’ll definitely get into the jobs part and what it means for the Hunter as well. But if we just go back a little bit — give me a little bit of history, background, on Green Steel. Why’d you join there? Tell me a little bit about the company itself.

Patrick Buchan [18:56]: Yeah, sure, James. Green Steel Australia is owned by Meena and Romana Ibrahim, who are just absolutely the best bosses I’ve ever had. They are entrepreneurs at scale. Across their businesses — there are several businesses they have, across so many things: medical, construction, childcare centres, existing manufacturing facilities in our sister company Rio Steel, which produces rebar at scale in New South Wales.

Green Steel came about because — again, hopping back to COVID — through the existing construction companies, they couldn’t get rebar. So, in true Meena and Romana style, which is what you see with entrepreneurs, it’s, right, I’ll go and create a steel company. And when you’ve got that sort of capital, you can do that. But it came about through necessity, for existing businesses. Because of the inability to get steel during COVID, because we’re relying on overseas markets. So that’s how Green Steel came about.

Additionally, the technology, and the existing relationships with the Danieli group, enabled it — at CEO-to-CEO level — to say, hey, look, let’s do this.

James MacDonald [20:29]: There’s an opportunity here.

Patrick Buchan [20:30]: There’s an opportunity. And that contract was formalised in 2024, that we were going to do this. We’ve been looking around. I know many people have said to us, wow, you came out of nowhere in Newcastle. I can assure you that perhaps publicly it might seem that way, but we’ve been working very hard for a couple of years behind the scenes, with policymakers and other corporate entities, about doing this announcement. So we’ve really done our homework, and with Danieli. And we’re so proud.

It’s not just a coincidence that 51 Industrial Drive, North Mayfield, here in the Hunter, is the spot — and the home of BHP, effectively, right? So the fact that we’re going there is, A, because it’s a fantastic site, and it’s got exactly the long buildings — our rolling line here in the Hunter, at the Mayfield site, that’s 400 metres long. The Danieli engineers and our Green Steel engineers have had to modify things a little bit, because the assembly line will be so long. But that site really has tradition. Not only is it a fantastic site, and it’s got what we need, but it really has a bit of an emotive context, to say, well, we’re bringing it back home here to Newcastle. And it just happened that site was available. So it’s fantastic. It’s really cool.

James MacDonald [21:56]: Oh, it’s significant. Significant for the Hunter. I think it is emotional, and it’s emotional for a lot of people. A lot of people in the Hunter still have that relationship, or have generations beforehand.

Patrick Buchan [22:09]: Of course.

James MacDonald [22:09]: With that tied to steel. We have moved more to, I guess, a coal-based industry up here. Of course. A lot of coal and mining, creating a lot of jobs for people for the Hunter. And that industry is changing as well — I think it’s going to still be here for a while to go.

Patrick Buchan [22:22]: Look, yeah. I’m one of these people — I’m not into the culture wars when it comes to manufacturing and renewables. Mine’s a very hard-headed business approach that I look at it with. And traditional energy and traditional manufacturing can coexist, and should coexist, as a blended model as we move to the future. But if people think about renewables and what’s called sustainable manufacturing — it’s not some pie in the sky. Maybe 20 years ago it might have been, but it’s not now. It’s here. The technology’s here. And it’s good for business, but it’s also good for the environment — and that’s a tick.

But it should never be driven primarily by, oh, you know, it’s just great for the environment, so let’s do it. That’s a really positive secondary to the fact that the technology now exists. It’s good for the environment, good for jobs, and can actually produce at scale by using newer energy sources.

James MacDonald [23:21]: Yeah, it’s commercially viable, right? That’s the name of the game. It needs to actually be — we can actually do something here, we can actually build a business out of this, be productive in the Hunter. The plant itself — 2028. What’s it look like between now and 2028?

Patrick Buchan [23:34]: Yep. So, first quarter 2028 is production. Again, not pie in the sky. We’ve done it here. That’s production.

James MacDonald [23:42]: That actually is going to come around very quickly.

Patrick Buchan [23:45]: It is. If you look at our Rio Steel, that was a couple of years from thought to pressing the button. We can move at scale very quickly. And our equipment, as it’s being manufactured — it comes out, it’s like a Meccano set, you just go so, so, so. What took years to build previously, those timeframes can now be shortened because of the tech, to be able to do that.

I think the other thing is, as we go through our planning processes, we’re working very closely with governments at all levels, who have been very aware of our ambitions and our plans — that’s now turned into planning and contracts signed. We will be looking to recruit. So there’ll be 200 people at the Newcastle site, and we will open to recruitment in early 2027. And part of our Danieli contract is, we have all the training — people to come out and help train our workforce.

I want to be very clear about something. We don’t care if you finished your formal education in year nine, or you went to Sydney University — we want to hear from you, because we will train you. In a good job, a well-paid job, a satisfying job. And, I mean this again — this emotive thing that we’ll have with steel — something for our country, that you are producing for our country to help build it. And maybe one day, the steel to defend it. So we want to hear from you. And that’s 200 jobs here in the Hunter — skilled jobs, manufacturing jobs, seeing the labour of your efforts actually produce something.

James MacDonald [25:36]: And that’s when it’s up and running. The job creation during the build process, the plant, all of that — the ongoing effect is actually significantly larger for the Hunter than just the ongoing jobs.

Patrick Buchan [25:47]: Of course — indirect jobs, right? At-scale production has the indirect. If people are not familiar, please jump on Google Maps and have a look at the site. It’s just a magnificent site. The buildings there, we will use those existing buildings, and obviously we’ll do some refurbishment. But the reason we’re so attracted — not only because the Hunter is the home of steel, but those buildings are just perfect for steel. And there’s a reason why: because that’s where they used to make steel, right? So we will use those existing buildings. Local trades, local logistics and local transport will inevitably enhance a lot of it. And a lot of it’s going to be available to local trades as we advance through our planning cycle.

James MacDonald [26:38]: That’s beautiful. And when we’re talking about the size and scope of this, what’s it mean dollar-wise? What are we investing in the Hunter?

Patrick Buchan [26:45]: $500 million. $500 million Australian dollars is our direct investment up front.

James MacDonald [26:51]: $500 million investment into the Hunter region.

Patrick Buchan [26:54]: $500 million, 200 jobs, and a steel mill back here in the home of steel, in Australia, right here in the Hunter, producing from first quarter 2028.

James MacDonald [27:08]: I think it’s a significant investment, significant announcement for the region. It’s great to be seeing, and hearing, the chatter around town. Have you heard, steel’s coming back?

Patrick Buchan [27:19]: It’s funny. A couple of times, when I’ve jumped in a cab or whatever — I haven’t told anyone who I work for, just asked about it — obviously, any Territorian in you, you always ask the Uber driver or the cabbie for the gossip. And I’ve said, I’ve heard that there’s possibly a steel mill coming back. And it’s fantastic, the response. In fact, I had a beer at one of the better pubs here last night — there are some good pubs in this town — and the young lady pouring a beer, I asked her about it, and she said she’d heard it, and she said, oh, my dad’s really excited. And that just really gives you real gratification, to know that you’re bringing steel back. But for younger people — we know this generationally, how important the environment and sustainable manufacturing is to them — well, we tick that box as well.

James MacDonald [28:22]: Yeah, I think a couple of phases there. Sovereign manufacturing — I think that’s massive. It’s a trend we, as a country, continue to lean into. But as you said, the environmental side of it as well. Environmental manufacturing, or environmental outputs in and around that manufacturing space, is a significant space for us to continue to grow.

Patrick Buchan [28:39]: That’s right. And of course, in renewables globally, it really has got to the point now that — if we look at Tesla, and the EV market, aircraft manufacturing — the use of cleaner, newer technology now enables that. It’s not a theory or a pipe dream, it’s here. And those less responsible media outlets that bang on about renewables and so on — the rest of the world’s going down that path, we have to keep suit, or our economy gets left behind. It’s as simple as that.

James MacDonald [29:16]: So this is a big announcement for the Hunter, really significant. As you said, I like the way you say it — the home of steel. I think the Hunter really will lean into that again.

Patrick Buchan [29:23]: Good.

James MacDonald [29:23]: Because that nostalgia. What does it look like ongoing for Green Steel in the Hunter? I imagine this is not a one-and-done. I know there’s been talk of a phase two, or ongoing plans. I imagine there are bigger, longer-term plans for Green Steel in the Hunter. What does that look like? What can you share at the moment? And what does it mean for the greater region?

Patrick Buchan [29:48]: Well, first thing I’d say is, it’s not just a big deal for the Hunter — although it is — it’s actually for our country. This is the first steel plant announced in this country in 30 years. That’s significant. And it goes to show the way that the world is moving again, back to ensuring your own manufacturing for the critical capabilities that a country and economy needs. So it’s big for Australia, it’s big for New South Wales, and it’s fantastic for the Hunter. That’s the first thing I’d really say. And we’re very proud to be here in the Hunter, we really are. This is the home of steel. And it’s not just the home of steel, but it’s also the home of the technical skill set in people, because of that intergenerational manufacturing capability that you can’t find in a lot of places in Australia anymore.

James MacDonald [30:36]: I agree. I believe that the Hunter bats well above its average when it comes to manufacturing.

Patrick Buchan [30:41]: No question.

James MacDonald [30:41]: The Hunter Manufacturing Awards each year share the best of what’s going on locally. I think Newcastle and the greater Hunter could do a better job of actually sharing some of those stories. There are really great companies locally, manufacturing locally, great people locally. As you said, there are a lot of very skilled people in and around that manufacturing and engineering space that this is obviously going to create more jobs for as well.

Patrick Buchan [31:03]: And it’s not just the skills that exist. It’s people willing, and coming, I guess, the generation coming out of that workforce that want to get back into it. I think so many people were, to be frank, sold, over the last 30 years — perhaps our generation was sold — that it’s all about, you’ve got to go to university. Well, yeah, sure, I did, and I was never going to be a technically skilled worker, that wasn’t my thing. But so many people were told that. And I just don’t think that’s the case.

James MacDonald [31:39]: Now there’s a definite trend back to trades. If you have a look at my trades at the moment, some of them are earning a significant amount of money. And good on them, love them. And they’re super vital to the economy, right? The building, the housing market is challenged, having commercial building as well — the trades that are actually needed for that, the engineers that are actually needed for that. As you said, there was definitely a trend to say, oh, you need to get —

Patrick Buchan [32:05]: Everybody’s got to go to uni and sit there for four years, correct.

James MacDonald [32:08]: And I would say, the same as you, I’m useless with a hammer.

Patrick Buchan [32:11]: Yep.

James MacDonald [32:11]: I’d be useless as a tradesperson. Put me outside at 6am and ask me to do some work — it’s not for me. But that engineering, that manufacturing market, has always been hard-edged into the region. There were a lot of jobs — it was BHP, then the mining market, it’s manufacturing here. So I think the alignment piece there, and actually encouraging that again, to that next generation, that these are the jobs of the future as well.

Patrick Buchan [32:40]: And that’s a critical component to our commercial decision to bring Green Steel Australia’s first steel mill here to the Hunter. We will be announcing what we call stage two. And again, I want to be very clear — our contracts are signed. Our media releases are out there. We are not hypotheticals. We’re paid up, we’re ready to go and to deploy. Our equipment is being manufactured to come to Australia to be assembled here in Australia. So we’re not hypothetical.

But the Hunter, for us, was a commercial decision based on: where’s the skill set, where’s the land, and — most important, well, not most important, but critical — is the input infrastructure: rail, electricity, roads, et cetera. But the fact that this is the home of steel and manufacturing in Australia means you’ve got skills base, and those willing to go into manufacturing. This is the only place to be.

James MacDonald [33:43]: That’s phenomenal. I think it’s great for the region, great for that next generation. As we said, it’s 200 jobs to start with. But it’s also — what does this look like long-term? It’s another big opportunity for the greater region. And as you said, it’s those flow-on effects as well, the logistics, the other companies that are working around it. So it’s bigger than the 200 jobs. And I’ll be very close to watching this phase two, and what it does look like for the ongoing.

Patrick Buchan [34:10]: Yeah. So, look, I’ll just briefly touch on phase two, because a lot of people ask about it. We are in advanced discussions with another jurisdiction for our stage two plans. We would love to do that in the Hunter, but we just feel that, for our second stage, the size and requirements — we just can’t get the land availability, it’s not here. So stage two, we’ll be making an announcement on — we’re very advanced with that jurisdiction. I can say it’s in New South Wales. So we want a full, what we call a full closed loop, to be able to do that all here in New South Wales.

But stage one, that’s announced — we will, in the next few weeks, be looking to make some further announcements on that. We will have a very notable political figure in this country coming along to our site to help us break ground as we begin our construction phase. And we’re really excited about that. And bringing 600,000 tonnes of rebar for Australia’s construction sector — we all know Australia’s housing issues, and as we grow as a country, the demands on that. So we look very much forward to producing that for Australia’s construction and housing sector.

James MacDonald [35:35]: Right. There are a couple of little pieces that I just want to pull back on that you’ve mentioned earlier today. You’ve mentioned the founders, you’ve mentioned entrepreneurs. Opportunities like this don’t come about unless you have those entrepreneurial people. Obviously the capital and everything comes along with it, but it’s the people. And it sounded like this came about from scratching their own itch. I work with startups and software a lot — people spot a little problem, build something for themselves, and then they figure out it’s a real-world problem, I can sell this. It sounds like it’s a similar situation on a much larger scale. They had other construction businesses where they actually needed this, they’ve got a resource, and they’ve gone about actually fixing the problem for themselves. And the flow-on effect that’s going to have for the rest of the region, state, country.

Patrick Buchan [36:23]: Absolutely. And working for guys that are just — they want to — people like to think of themselves as an entrepreneur, but to see how it works at scale, and how fast people can move, is really heartening. If you look at those that make the big moves, in whatever facet of life that may be — those that talk, and those that do — it’s those that do it, how they think and how they operate, that’s fascinating to watch up close. And the reality is, people like that don’t think like others.

And I really love, here in our country, they have a go. They have a go, and have a crack yourself. And I think so many times, people can be a little bit down, and we tend to talk our country down, or our economy down. But this is seriously the greatest country in the world. The opportunities for business here are fantastic. It doesn’t matter where you were born, doesn’t matter what your background is — here in Australia, if you want to work hard, and you want to make the big calls, governments and societies will back you in to be able to do that. And we exemplify that at Green Steel Australia.

James MacDonald [37:49]: Yeah, I think that’s a perfect shout-out. It’s great to encourage more people like that. As you said, a very few minority of people go from talking about it to actually executing on it. Those people are absolutely a minority. I think we should be doing more and more to encourage people like that to continue to build in Australia, to make opportunities for them to execute on these big plans.

Patrick Buchan [38:16]: Could I give you a quick life example? I can recall once, when I was a kid, I was watching the cricket with my dad. And Michael Slater was batting. And I sort of said, I want a — crummy shot, or whatever I said. My old man looked at me — and this has stayed with me all my life and driven me in so much, just one thing a parent can say to you. He looked at me and he said, mate, there’s a reason you’re watching this. So it’s okay for me to sit behind this anonymous screen and bag the person out. But it’s — if I can quote Teddy Roosevelt — it’s the person in the arena that’s having a go, that’s willing to take a risk.

And I think Australia provides that, because of the nature of our society. Ultimately, we’re all migrants here. We’ve come to this wonderful country that’s provided us the opportunity to have a go. And I think it is the Australian way, to have a crack. But again, coming back to Green Steel Australia — we’ve got that ethos, we’ve got that quick can-do attitude, entrepreneurial spirit, to move at pace and at scale. But this is not ethereal for us. We’re signed, we’re ready to go. The equipment’s here, the technology — the advanced Danieli technology that we will deploy to be able to do 600,000 tonnes of rebar here in New South Wales, here in the Hunter, at scale, at speed, in the first quarter of 2028.

James MacDonald [39:45]: I can’t think of a better way to wrap up the podcast than that. It’s a strong finish, it’s a strong line. It’s great for the Hunter. I really appreciate your time.

Patrick Buchan [39:56]: Mate, thanks for having me. And although I live in Sydney, my duties now involve me being here in the Hunter. I’ve got a lot of mates that — when I served in the army, a lot of Newcastle guys — that gives me a chance to get up here and have a beer with. And it’s just such a cool Australian town, Newcastle. I think it really does exemplify what I love about Australia. Beachy, hardworking, people not taking themselves all too seriously, that down-to-earth attitude. I think Newcastle is just the exemplar of what I love about our country.

James MacDonald [40:32]: I appreciate you taking the time to come up here today. And I look forward to watching the Green Steel Australia journey as we move into 2028 and beyond. Thanks, mate.

Patrick Buchan [40:40]: Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

James MacDonald [40:41]: Thanks for listening to this episode of Engineering in the Hunter. This episode was brought to you by NTP Talent. If you’re building your engineering or manufacturing teams in and around the Hunter, I’d love to have a conversation with you at NTP Talent, where we’re helping teams across the greater Hunter build and add talent to their teams. If you’d like some more information, visit our website, ntptalent.com.au. This episode was produced by Day One. I’ll see you on the next episode.