BlueScope CEO calls for lower gas prices to ensure competitiveness (updated)

BlueScope Steel

29/04/2026 04:48

Adds quotes, details throughout

Gas prices hitting Australian manufacturing -CEO

Policymakers need to act on Chinese steel dumping -CEO

Aluminium supply impacted by Iran war -CEO

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE, April 29 (Reuters) - Australia's biggest steelmaker BlueScope BSL.AX called on Wednesday for lower domestic gas prices and for policymakers to better reinforce the country's domestic industry against dumping of steel products by China.

Australia has for years sought to find ways to reserve more gas for its domestic market without alarming major liquefied natural gas customers across Asia, such as Japan and Korea.

Supply disruptions from the Iran war have increased political pressure for reform, with details likely to be announced in a federal budget due on May 12.

"What we want is an effective domestic gas reservation scheme, including a price mechanism, so that there is a balance between domestic industry and LNG exports," said CEO Tania Archibald at a Melbourne Mining Club event.

Australia's wholesale gas price is three to four times higher than those of Qatar and the U.S., said Archibald, adding: "Australian manufacturing can't compete, with gas and broader energy prices at the current level".

     Australia's domestic gas reservation scheme must bring its delivered price down to A$8 to A$10 ($5.73 to $7.16) per gigajoule to ensure competitiveness, she said.

The Australian Energy Market Operator said spot gas prices in Sydney were A$10.88 per gigajoule on Wednesday.

THOUSANDS OF JOBS AT RISK, CEO SAYS

Policymakers should also step up to better resource Australia's anti-dumping commission, where backlogs have stretched out to nearly 18 months, as China has in recent years trebled steel exports to 130 million metric tons, she said.

"What we're dealing with is dumped product coming into this country, and it's severely impacting part of this industrial base," said Archibald, who became CEO in February after 30 years at BlueScope.

"This has already destroyed hundreds of jobs across the Australian fabrication industry and is placing thousands more at risk," she said, adding that U.S. tariffs on steel imports were "squarely aimed at China but the rest of us get taken out as collateral damage".

China has consistently denied accusations of dumping cheap steel in international markets and in recent years has sought to crack down on overcapacity to curb exports.

BlueScope rejected an A$15 billion ($10.7 billion) revised bid from SGH SGH.AX and U.S.-based Steel Dynamics STLD.O in February but said it was open to further talks.

Disruptions as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have impacted supplies of aluminium, which BlueScope uses in some products and has had to source from elsewhere, she said.

BlueScope was very focused on running its North American assets, which make up half of its asset base and more than 50% of its profit, she said, declining to comment on media reports it was considering auctioning its Ohio steelmaking plant.

($1 = 1.3963 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Melanie Burton in Melbourne. Additional reporting by Helen Clark; Editing by Alasdair Pal, Muralikumar Anantharaman and Alexander Smith)

((Alasdair.Pal@thomsonreuters.com; +61 291 717 228; Reuters Messaging: alasdair.pal.reuters.com@reuters.net/))