BlueScope to invest record in capital works
Australia's largest steelmaker BlueScope has signalled its intention to invest record profits into capital works including extensive carbon abatement programs.
Mark Vassella, the Managing Director and Chief Executive, said there was strong demand for building and construction products in Australia and the United States.
Residential housing and industrial commercial are strong, and we have seen building and construction continue to be strong, Mr Vassella said.
We have been beneficiaries of the stimulus work that was put in as we went into the pandemic, the home builder programs for example. The company will be able to invest $1 billion in the Port Kembla blast furnace reline project to modernise its raw steelmaking technology because of the result, said Vassella.
The outlay will cover investment in decarbonisation via new technologies such as hydrogen electrolysers and work with miner Rio Tinto to produce new types of iron.
He said that we have things we can do every day to improve our energy use, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and invest in some of the long-term breakthrough technologies that aren't yet commercially viable.
Will work with the government on emissions.
As one of Australia's top 20 carbon emitters, BlueScope would be impacted by a tighter federal safeguard mechanism, which is a way to rein in national emissions and meet legislated targets.
Vassella said we are well prepared to deal with the safeguard mechanisms.
We have a strong relationship with the Labor government because we are in the Illawarra. I am encouraged by the ACCC Australian Competition and Consumer Commission report, the messages that are coming from the new federal government. Mr Vassella said the company's focus would be on emission reductions rather than offsets in order to meet targets.
He said that he was not saying that we would never use offsets, but our primary focus is on direct abatement.
Our focus is more on how we reduce carbon by absorption and how do we reduce it.