BlueScope Steel (BSL)

Shares / Stock Code

BSL

Stock Exchange / Sharemarket

ax

Operating mainly in the Asia Pacific, North America and Europe, BlueScope is now one of the leading manufacturers and marketers of steel products. BlueScope Steel was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange on the 15th of July 2002. Its annual revenue reaches approximately AUD$ 8 billion. Its main office is located in Victoria, Australia and around 18,000 employees are working for BlueScope. BlueScope is divided into six segments: building and coated products of Australia, Hot-rolled products Australia, coated and building products Asia, New Zealand and Pacific Steel Products, coated and building products North America and Hot-rolled products North America.

The BlueScope Steel in Australia mainly manufactures an array of steel products that range from plate, slob, hot and cold rolled coils, coated and painted sheet, coil products and tinplates to wall-cladding and roofing, house framing and purlins. In the segment of coated and building products, the array of products produced by BlueScope includes ZINCALUME and COLORBOND steel. Its building products include LYSAGHT KLIP-LOK, LYSAGHT CUSTOM ORB, LYSAGHT NEETASCREEN, LYSAGHT MINI ORB, LYSAGHT UNI-PIER, and LYSAGHT BONDEK decking.

The New Zealand and Pacific Steel segment of Blue Scope Steel is composed of two companies; The Lysaght Pacific and The New Zealand Steel. The New Zealand Steel is in charge of the local manufacturing of coal and iron sand to form slabs. These are used for both the domestic and export market of the company.

Bluescope Steel Limited Company History

BlueScope was a BHP founded company focusing on the mining of lead, silver and zinc. It was founded in 1885 until the company turned its business into steelmaking in 1915 leading the company to open a plant in Newcastle.

It was in 1935 when BlueScope opened a marketing office in Singapore. In the same year, BHP acquired Australia Iron & Steel and several years after, in 1979, BHP also acquired the John Lysaught Company in Australia. Another company, the New Zealand Steel became a part of the BHP in 1989.

It was in the year 2000 when several distribution assets as well as the other components of the businesses of the company were separated from the BHP itself and were listed as OneSteel in the Australian Stock Exchange.

A merging between Anglo-African Billiton and BHP was made in 2001 to form BHP Billiton. As a result of this merging, BHP Steel became publicly listed and was listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in the year 2002. Its name was then changed to BlueScope in 2003.

A US-based company, Butler Manufacturing was acquired by BlueScope in 2004 and a joint venture between BlueScope Steel and Tata Steel was announced in November 2005. It was also in 2005 when the first production from Vietnam’s new metallic coating line was commenced by BlueScope.

In February 2006, Andrew Baker was appointed by the BlueScope Steel as the company’s new Chief Information Officer and in August of the same year, 19.9% of the Smorgon Steel’s outstanding shares were acquired by BlueScope.

Smorgon Steel, OneSteel and BlueScope Limited entered into an agreement in March 2007 that led to the merging of OneSteel and Smorgon Steel. Under the agreement BlueScope Steel is undertaking support.