Photo courtesy of BlueScope Steel Ltd.
BlueScope Steel Ltd., which operates a recycled-content electric arc furnace mill (EAF) and scrapyards in Ohio, has reported fiscal year 2025 net profits that dropped nearly 90 percent compared with the previous fiscal year.
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Australia-based BlueScope has reported a net profit after tax (NPAT) figure of AU$83.8 million ($54.4 million), an 89.5 percent drop compared with the NPAT figure of AU$805.7 million ($522.7 million) in fiscal year 2024.
In comments accompanying the earnings report, BlueScope and its Managing Director and CEO Mark Vassella point to the disappointing performance of United States downstream steel finishing assets.
“Disappointingly, there has been a delay in achieving our expectations of the BlueScope Coated Products business, which we acquired in 2022, and an impairment of AU$439 million ($284.8 million) has been recorded,” Vasella says.
In that year, BlueScope acquired the coil coatings business of Cary, North Carolina-based Cornerstone Building Brands Inc. That business unit produces light-gauge coil coating services and painted hot-roll steel.
Despite the accounting charge taken against that acquisition, Vasella says it "remains core to our North American growth strategy," and that the company continues to invest in the turnaround of the business.
Regarding BlueScope’s overall performance in its 2025 fiscal year, which ran from July 1, 2024, to June 30 of this year, Vasella says, “Whilst a softer performance than last year, this level of profitability in the face of the cyclically soft conditions and global uncertainty during the year represents a resilient result, underpinned by our diversified portfolio of quality assets and multidomestic strategy.
“Looking across our key geographical exposures: in North America, North Star maintained its leading position on the cost curve, with debottlenecking investments further underwriting this position. Our Australian operations delivered solid results [and] Asia delivered a steady performance, whilst New Zealand was impacted by continued soft domestic demand conditions and challenging energy pricing, prior to converting to the new EAF model.”
Regarding the transition to the fiscal year now underway, Vasella says, “BlueScope is a very different type of steel company, defined by a spread of strategic assets, operational excellence and financial discipline. As evidenced by the performance of the business in fiscal year 2025, we are delivering results today while building for tomorrow.
"We are entering fiscal year 2026 with confidence. While macroeconomic conditions remain mixed, our multidomestic strategy of prioritizing in-market production for in-market consumption sets us up strongly to manage the current environment. The company expects underlying earnings before interest and taxes in the first half of fiscal year 2026 to be in the range of AU$550 million to AU$620 million [$357 million to $402 million], subject to spread, foreign exchange and market conditions.”