Comsteel is an Australian manufacturer of steel products based in the

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

suburb of

Waratah Waratah (''Telopea'') is an Australian-endemic genus of five species of large shrubs or small trees, native to the southeastern parts of Australia (New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania). The best-known species in this genus is ''Telopea speci ...

. It is a subsidiary of American Industrial Partners.

History

Comsteel was founded as Commonwealth Steel Products in 1918 by

Clyde Engineering Clyde Engineering was an Australian manufacturer of locomotives, rolling stock, and other industrial products. It was founded in September 1898 by a syndicate of Sydney businessmen buying the Granville factory of timber merchants Huds ...

, Goninan & Co, Pioneer Spring Co and

Ritchie Brothers Ritchie Brothers was an Australian railway rolling stock and tram manufacturer based in the Sydney suburb of Auburn, New South Wales, Auburn. History In 1857, Robert Ritchie took over the blacksmith business of Joseph Whiting of Parramatta. In ...

to manufacture wheels, tyres, axles and

steel casting Steel casting is a specialized form of casting involving various types of steel cast to either final/net or near-net shape. Steel castings are used when iron castings cannot deliver enough strength or shock resistance.Oberg, p. 1332 Examples ...

s for railway use.Commonwealth Steel Products Ltd
Newcastle Industrial Heritage Association A plant was established in the

suburb of

with Howard Smith acquiring a shareholding. After

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

acquired a shareholding, in 1923 it was renamed Vickers Commonwealth Steel Products. In the 1930s,

BHP BHP Group Limited (formerly known as BHP Billiton) is an Australian multinational mining, metals, natural gas petroleum public company that is headquartered in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The Broken Hill Proprietary Company was founded ...

gradually bought out the other shareholders and it became the Commonwealth Steel Company. In 1959, a mill was opened in

Unanderra Unanderra ( ) is a suburb of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 6 km south-west of the Wollongong CBD. It is bordered to the west by Farmborough, Cordeaux Heights and Farmborough Heights in the Mount Kembla ...

for the cold rolling of stainless steel.Australians in Company
BHP 1985 In 1971, Comsteel was licensed by Midland-Ross to produce couplers, draft gears and freight wagon bogies. In 1983, Commonwealth Steel Company and the Australian subsidiary of Vickers merged to form Comsteel with BHP and Vickers each holding 38% shareholdings. In 1985 Comsteel was purchased by

Australian National Industries Australian National Industries was an Australian heavy engineering company with diverse range of holdings. History In 1911 John McGrath began to sell motor vehicles. It operated the first public garage in New South Wales. The company held motor ...

(ANI). It was included in the 1999 takeover of ANI by

Smorgon Steel Smorgon Steel was an Australian steel manufacturing company. It was the last remaining part of Smorgon Consolidated Industries, founded in 1958 by Victor Smorgon, member of the Smorgon family. In 1997, Smorgon purchased structural materials Weld ...

which in turn was purchased by

OneSteel Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into voluntary administration in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group. Hist ...

in 2007. Since 2016 it has been owned by American Industrial Partners.Who we are
MolyCop 3 January 2017

References

External links

Company website
{{BHP BHP Companies based in Newcastle, New South Wales Manufacturing companies of Australia Manufacturing companies established in 1918 Vickers Australian companies established in 1918