BlueScope beefs up China steel
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SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- Australian steelmaker BlueScope Steel is to spend Aust. $280 million ($222 million) on a new plant in China's Jiangsu province.
It said Wednesday it would build a steel metallic coating and painting facility in Suzhou, 80 kilometers west of Shanghai, to meet demand from China's booming building and construction market.
The plant will be completed by mid-2006 and will have a metallic coating capacity of 250,000 tonnes and paint line capacity of 150,000 tonnes a year.
BlueScope's China expansion follows its announcement Monday that it planned to buy U.S. steel products company Butler Manufacturing for A$260 million ($206 million).
BlueScope said Butler was the market leader in China in pre-engineered metal building systems and architectural products.
Last month, BlueScope (the former BHP Steel) said it would spend A$80 million to boost the capacity of its metallic coating plant in Thailand to 375,000 tonnes a year.
It also has plants in Malaysia and Indonesia, with a new coating and painting facility under construction near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
BlueScope already has four manufacturing businesses in the Chinese cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou, Langfang and Chengdu, operating under the Lysaght name.
Shares in BlueScope are 1.42 percent higher at A$5.71 on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) Wednesday. The company listed on the ASX in July 2002 as BHP Steel and changed its name to BlueScope last November.
