ASX Announcements
This Month
Sanjeev Gupta calls in rival to help Whyalla steelworks strife
Steel traders say customers of the Whyalla steelworks, which has been offline for almost two months, are ordering supplies from Asia amid uncertainty over a restart date.
- Simon Evans
April
- Opinion
- Australian economy
Albanese makes manufacturing his future
Labor wants to promote a future made in Australia. He knows it will have political appeal. What about the economics?
- Jennifer Hewett
- Opinion
- Chanticleer
‘Big Short’ hero’s new big idea is one Aussie investors can ride
Famed US investor Steve Eisman says that when things are good, markets trade on stories. But there’s one theme that stands out from the rest.
- James Thomson
Clock ticks on BlueScope’s dibs at South32’s $2.5b coal sale; DD afoot
The confidential deed grants BlueScope 60 business days to look at the books, followed by another 20 days to exercise its matching rights.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
March
Rio bows to investor pressure on green-steel spending
Big investors led by Fidelity and the Australian Council of Superannuation Investors have twisted its arm regarding disclosures.
- Brad Thompson
February
BlueScope considers tilt at South32 mines to pre-empt $2.5b sale
The move could reunite the Illawarra coal mining and steel assets that were once owned by BHP. South32 has agreed to sell the mines to an Indonesian group.
- Elouise Fowler and Peter Ker
BlueScope in $1.8b plan to take Colorbond roofing to US
CEO Mark Vassella says steel margins in Asia are at 20-year lows, and wants to replicate the Australian success of Colorbond steel products, in the USA.
- Simon Evans
Push to save iron ore golden goose
Three companies aim to develop a pilot plant in Australia that would make “green iron” from Pilbara ores, opening a path towards decarbonising steel production.
- Updated
- Angela Macdonald-Smith and Brad Thompson
- Opinion
- The AFR View
Labor’s climate cross purposes
The political risk is for a de facto return to rent-seeking protectionist industry policy clashing with the net zero by 2050 goal.
- The AFR View
BlueScope ‘old’ blast furnace grant slammed by experts
Experts were surprised at the grant as they understood BlueScope had missed out on a Hydrogen Headstart grant that would have better advanced green steel plans.
- Ben Potter
January
Taxpayers to help fund coal-fired steel plant upgrade
Australia’s biggest steelmaker BlueScope will get $137 million in taxpayer funds to help pay for an upgrade of a coal-fired blast furnace making steel in the same way it has for decades.
- Simon Evans
December 2023
- Exclusive
- AUKUS
Defence deal makers team up as US Senate approves AUKUS legislation
Security experts say the approval will send a strong message to China and strengthen the military industrial bases of both Australia and America.
- Updated
- Andrew Tillett and Matthew Cranston
Steel, concrete shortages ‘threaten housing, clean energy projects’
Steel imports have been rising, sparking concerns that infrastructure projects could again become vulnerable to global supply chain glitches.
- Jenny Wiggins
How to optimise your stock portfolio for a high $A
Citi expects the currency to rise to US76¢ by late 2025. Some companies will benefit from that surge, outlined in a note by the bank’s equities strategists to clients.
- Updated
- Joshua Peach and Cecile Lefort
October 2023
BlueScope, Aconex co-founder back mass timber products start-up
A Melbourne start-up has banked $1.5 million to develop structural design software to bring mass timber into the mainstream.
- Tess Bennett
September 2023
Surge in China steel making buoys iron ore miners, hurts local producers
The uptick is expected to gather pace despite an edict for output to be curbed in a bid to reduce carbon emissions, analysts and fund managers say.
- Simon Evans
- Opinion
- Climate policy
‘Perverse outcomes’ of carbon border tax revealed
Climate and Energy Minister Chris Bowen should let the Safeguard Mechanism find its feet, and adjust it, before erecting a carbon tollgate at the border.
- Ben Potter
Carbon border tax could expose BlueScope, Transurban
A carbon border adjustment tax would raise much more from the cement industry than the steel industry, and is a missed opportunity, according to UBS.
- Ben Potter
August 2023
South32 warns IR changes will hit productivity, investment
Global mining heavyweight South32 sees Australia’s industrial relations changes as threat to productivity and investment.
- Brad Thompson
BlueScope to spend $1.15b on old-school steelmaking
CEO Mark Vassella says higher migration and a housing shortage should underpin demand for Colorbond roofing even though interest rates have risen sharply.
- Simon Evans
