History of BlueScope Steel
The Beginning | Research and Development | Today
The modern BlueScope Steel Limited has evolved from the coming together of three pioneer companies in the Australian steel industry (The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, John Lysaght (Australia) Pty Ltd and Australian Iron & Steel Limited) together with the more recent acquisitions of New Zealand Steel and Butler Manufacturing.
The Beginning
Our roots go back to The Broken Hill Proprietary Company Limited, founded in 1885 to mine silver, lead and zinc deposits in far western New South Wales. In 1915, the company moved into steelmaking, opening a works at Newcastle to meet Australia's growing demand for steel products.
This demand intensified during the First World War when foreign supplies were cut off. In 1918 John Lysaght (Australia) Pty Ltd was founded to serve the Australian building and construction industry. Galvanized steel from Lysaght's English factory had already established the market for high quality coated steel building products, sold under Lysaght's famous 'ORB' brand, that was to contribute to a uniquely Australian style of architecture that still dominates the rural landscape. Lysaght pioneered modern steel coating technologies.
Australian Iron & Steel Limited (AIS) was formed in 1928 to operate a steelworks at Port Kembla in New South Wales adjacent to the region's abundant coalfields. The Port Kembla Steelworks has grown to become one of the world's most successful and efficient steel plants, a low-cost facility that is a significant source of the modern BlueScope Steel's competitive advantage.
AI&S was acquired by BHP in 1935. John Lysaght (Australia) Pty Ltd became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1979.
From the outset of its involvement in the steel industry, BHP had been heavily export-orientated and international in its focus. Exports began in the first year of steel production and the company opened its first overseas marketing office in Singapore in 1935.
New Zealand Steel was founded in 1968 to convert the rich iron sands of Waikato North Head, near Auckland, into modern steel products for the New Zealand and export markets. It became a part of BlueScope Steel in 1989.
BlueScope Steel has been developing its network of coating lines and rollforming plants across Asia since the late 1960s, with the production and distribution of LYSAGHT® building products in Singapore and Malaysia. Today the company is a major supplier to customers in all major Asian markets supplied from state of the art coating lines in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
These investments marked a shift in corporate strategy from a focus on the Australian domestic market to a multi-domestic strategy. Aligned with this was a commitment to the production of flat steel products and a recognition that this market segment held the greatest potential for growth and world competitiveness.
Excess global steelmaking capacity caused BHP to close the loss-making Newcastle Steelworks in 1999. In doing so, the company again prepared itself for success, ensuring its operations were efficient, cost-effective and able to meet the challenges of a changing industry and changing markets.
In October 2000, the long products components of BlueScope Steel's business - including the Whyalla Steelworks, the downstream market mills which continued to operate in Newcastle and various steel distribution assets - were separated from the company and listed on the Australian Stock Exchange as OneSteel Limited.
In March 2001, BHP announced two major decisions: that it was merging with the Anglo-African mining house Billiton plc to form a dual-listed company called BHP Billiton; and that BlueScope Steel was to be spun out as a separate Australian publicly listed company.
BlueScope Steel Limited (formerly known as BHP Steel) was ultimately listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on 15 July 2002.
Since the public listing BlueScope Steel has expanded further in to Asia with the development of new plants in China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
The company adopted its new name of BlueScope Steel in November 2003.
In April 2004, BlueScope Steel acquired Butler Manufacturing in the United States. Founded in 1901, Butler Manufacturing is today the leading designer and producer of pre-engineered buildings in North America and China. The company also supplies a range of architectural products (windows, skylights, and storefront framing systems) and offers real estate development and construction management services. Butler is based in Kansas City and sells through about 4,000 independent dealers and contractors, and through strategic alliances with other corporations.
Research and Development
BlueScope Steel has remained at the forefront of technical innovation. In 1966, COLORBOND® steel made its debut on the Australian market, a premium product that revolutionised the building industry and changed the face of architecture, providing architects for the first time with a reliable, long-lasting prepainted steel product that had great aesthetic appeal. As a product born from superior coating technology it gave them a new freedom to achieve innovative and highly creative design solutions.
Today, COLORBOND® steel is in demand by customers around the world. This technological breakthrough was followed in 1976 by ZINCALUME® steel, a revolutionary zinc/aluminium alloy coating that greatly extended product life and led to the development of even more reliable steel products for the construction and manufacturing industries. ZINCALUME® steel was developed in association with Bethlehem Steel in America and refined by Australian technologists at the Port Kembla research laboratories. The technology is licensed internationally by BIEC International Inc., a BlueScope Steel subsidiary. A similar technology is marketed in some countries as GALVALUME®
Other innovations have included lighter gauge, high-strength, low alloy steels for the automotive industry and the invention of Castrip™, a thin strip casting process in partnership with Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries of Japan, and now in development as a joint venture with the US company Nucor in readiness for worldwide marketing.
On another front, BlueScope Steel and Akzo-Nobel (the world's largest coil paint supplier) have developed and are currently commercialising a revolutionary solvent-less solid block painting system that has the capacity to reduce significantly the production cost of painted products.
Today
Today, BlueScope Steel is the region's leading flat steel products company, serving customers in the building and construction, manufacturing, automotive and packaging industries. It holds leading market positions in Australia and New Zealand for most of its value-added products and services and continues to build on its long-established presence in Asia. It is also a major exporter, supplying customers in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific and elsewhere through a worldwide network of sales offices.
BlueScope Steel's success is derived from its long-standing relationships and by providing tailored solutions that meet the specific requirements of its customers and markets.
BlueScope Steel conducts its activities through four major business units: Australian and New Zealand Industrial Markets; Australian Manufacturing Markets; Asian Building & Manufacturing Markets; and Australian Building & Logistics Solutions.
BlueScope Steel's Australian & New Zealand Industrial Markets business is centred on the Port Kembla Steelworks, an integrated steel plant operating in the lowest quartile of the world steel production cost curve with an annual production capacity of 5.0 million tonnes. It manufactures and distributes both semi-finished products (slab and hot rolled coil) and finished products (plate and tin plate), with semi-finished products being supplied to export markets and the vertically integrated Australian Manufacturing Markets business. Industrial Markets also has a 50% interest in North Star BlueScope Steel, a steel mini-mill in Ohio in the United States, which was commissioned in 1995. New Zealand Steel is a unique fully integrated operation covering the entire steel supply chain. It uses our iron-rich sands and locally sourced coal to produce around 600,000 tonnes of steel slab each year. Slabs are processed into hot and cold rolled products, which are then on-sold, or further processed into products such as hollow sections, galvanized steel, and ZINCALUME® steel and COLORSTEEL®.
Australian Manufacturing Markets is a world leader in metallic coating and painting technologies, supplying a wide range of branded products such as COLORBOND® steel, ZINCALUME® steel and the LYSAGHT® range of building products. It services its customers through a network of distribution and manufacturing facilities throughout Australia.
Asian Building & Manufacturing Markets comprises the company's three principal manufacturing plants in Asia: a cold rolling, painting and coating facility in Thailand; and coating and painting plants in Indonesia and Malaysia. It also comprises the company's BlueScope Lysaght building products operations - including steel rollforming plants and sales offices - in 12 countries across Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Australian Building & Logistics Solutions comprises the company's Australian BlueScope Lysaght building products operations, including rollforming plants and sales offices in most States, the BlueScope Water business, International Trade Services, strategic marketing and BlueScope Steel's Logistics operations.
Though it is a relative newcomer to the Australian Stock Exchange, BlueScope Steel is part of Australia's industrial history. With a proud heritage dating back to 1915, the company has built itself into the biggest steel group in Australasia and one of the better performing companies in the competitive global steel industry.
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BlueScope Steel Limited ABN 16 000 011 058 BlueScope is a trademark of BlueScope Steel Limited
