78 | ENGINEERING Global Engineering T T Russell Fredric Capacity counts in steel fabrication Global Engineering offers comprehensive steel fabrication, facilitated by a skilled team ranging from in-house detailers, estimators and fabricators to on-site rigging crews. Global Engineering can fabricate, coat and erect all types of structures efficiently and to a high standard. “It’s quite a unique project for us. It’s supporting our community and the infrastructure around it, as well as providing communication for aviation, Auckland’s water care assets, and for other users.” An uncompromising focus on quality and robust processes has helped Global Engineering navigate through both buoyant and challenging economic times. Based in a purpose-built factory in Kumeu, northwest Auckland, Global Engineering offers comprehensive steel fabrication, facilitated by a skilled team ranging from in-house detailers, estimators and fabricators to on-site rigging crews. General manager Sean Gladwin says Global Engineering operates from a well-equipped facility that enables it to work on major structural projects, typically as a trusted subcontractor to a main contractor, as well as having the flexibility to take on smaller jobs. The company has the capacity to output 50 tonnes a week of structural steel in various forms, based on a standard working week, but this can be increased to meet higher demand as needed. Global Engineering can fabricate, coat and erect all types of structures efficiently and to a high standard, with many projects requiring complex problem solving and a high level of custom design using 3D modelling software. Each part of the process is closely monitored using integrated management software for drafting, fabrication, finishing and installation. While the first three quarters of last year were quieter in the struggling construction economy, a resurgence in jobs on the books is resulting in a positive workload going into 2025, Sean says. “As a whole, last year was quiet. We didn’t drop any staff, but we had to drop down in the hours we were giving staff as a result of it. It’s really important for us as a company to maintain the really good-quality crew of people that we’ve got. “There’s a lot of work out there at the moment, but it’s really difficult to win because there’s a few people in the Auckland market that are really undercutting the rest of the market and they’re not certified steel fabricators; they don’t have the capacity that we have, they don’t have the backing and quality assurance that we have.” This situation reinforces the significant benefits of engaging a reputable company with a proven record and an inherent ethos of quality service, systems and workmanship, Sean says. Despite the construction downturn, Global Engineering’s workload ramped up again in the last quarter of 2024 with key projects including subcontracting on the construction of Daily Freight’s new 13,000sqm warehouse/ office in Penrose. The project is being led by main contractor Dominion Constructors of Auckland. “The building is kind of unique because it was an existing structure and they took it all down and we are basically rebuilding it again. We’ve imported some really big custom-made beams for the job. The quality assurance is all accredited with New Zealand manufacturing standards,” says Sean. “We had to fabricate those and cut them to length, weld all the cleats and the holes in. That made that job somewhat unique.” Global Engineering supplied 420 tonnes of structural steel components for the project. “That type of structure is our bread and butter.” The company is completing another large job in Hastings for Lineage Logistics, the world’s largest provider of temperature-controlled logistics solutions, and has been fabricating two communication towers to be installed in the Waitakere Ranges, one for a radar and one for several UHF, VHF radio antennas. “It’s quite a unique project for us. It’s supporting our community and the infrastructure around it, as well as providing communication for aviation, Auckland’s water care assets, and for other users.”
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