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Arrium was an Australian mining and materials company, employing nearly 10,000 workers, that went into
voluntary administration As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry o ...
in 2016 with debts of more than $2 billion. In 2017 it was acquired by British-owned Liberty House Group.


History

The company was spun off from
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 ...
in 2000 as an almost entirely domestically focused steel manufacturer and distributor branded as OneSteel. Among its principal assets were the Whyalla Steelworks, Whyalla harbour and iron ore mining operations along the Middleback Range, about 50 km (30 mi) west of
Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...
. The company subsequently expanded its businesses in mining, mining consumables, and steel and recycling. In 2012, OneSteel was renamed Arrium.


Company acquisitions and sales

In 2006, an agreement was announced under which OneSteel would buy out
scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap has monetary value, especially recovered me ...
company Smorgon Steel for US$1.2 billion. However, concerns by competition regulator, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC), delayed the process, as did concerns by construction industry trade unions about possible job losses. The merger was completed in 2007. In 2008, the company announced that one of the bar mills in the
Hunter Valley The Hunter Region, also commonly known as the Hunter Valley, is a region of New South Wales, Australia, extending from approximately to north of Sydney. It contains the Hunter River and its tributaries with highland areas to the north and so ...
and the mill in
Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
would be closed. In 2010, OneSteel acquired two companies,
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
-based forged steel grinding balls producer Moly-Cop, and Canada-based AltaSteel, a producer of ball stock for forged grinding balls, for a total of $932 million. In 2011, OneSteel acquired the iron ore assets of
WPG Resources WPG Resources (formerly Western Plains Gold) was a mining company focusing on exploration, evaluation and development of gold and coal projects in South Australia. Western Plains Gold was founded in 2004 and listed on the Australian Securities ...
for an estimated A$320 million. In the same year, OneSteel sold its Piping Systems business and associated property investments to US-based McJunkin Red Man Holding for a total of $100 million.


Financial difficulties and acquisition

The company, as Arrium Limited, accumulated huge debts and in 2015 it announced a full-year loss of
AUD The Australian dollar ( sign: $; code: AUD) is the currency of Australia, including its external territories: Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, and Norfolk Island. It is officially used as currency by three independent Pacific Isla ...
1.9 billion In April 2016, Arrium's directors placed the company into
voluntary administration As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions, similar to bankruptcy in the United States. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry o ...
. Soon after that, to reduce Arrium's total debt of $2.8 billion, administrators signed a sale agreement for AUD1.6 billion to sell the Moly-Cop grinding media business – the company's only profitable division, which was not under administration. In September 2017, British-owned GFG Alliance acquired the Arrium Mining and Arrium Steel businesses, including Australia's main steel manufacturer and distributor, OneSteel. The OneSteel brand was changed to Liberty OneSteel and Arrium Mining was renamed SIMEC Mining. The acquisition also included the Australian reinforcing company, Austube Mills; the Australian rail stockist Emrails; and product brands such as Waratah and Cyclone.


Whyalla iron ore export

In 2007, OneSteel commenced iron ore export from the port of Whyalla via transshipment. In October 2012, a new
dual gauge In railway engineering, "gauge" is the transverse distance between the inner surfaces of the heads of two rails, which for the vast majority of railway lines is the number of rails in place. However, it is sometimes necessary for track to c ...
railway balloon loop was commissioned at
Whyalla Whyalla was founded as "Hummocks Hill", and was known by that name until 1916. It is the fourth most populous city in the Australian state of South Australia after Adelaide, Mount Gambier and Gawler and along with Port Pirie and Port Augusta ...
with the purpose of increasing Arrium's iron ore export capacity to 12 million tonnes per annum. Arrium's iron ore export volumes from Whyalla peaked at 12.5 million tonnes per annum in 2013–14 and 2014–15. In March 2015, Arrium's Southern Iron project, which includes the
Peculiar Knob mine Peculiar may refer to: * ''Peculiar'' (album), an album by The Slackers * Peculiar, a comic strip later published as a book, by cartoonist Richard Sala * Royal peculiar, an ecclesiastical district, parish, chapel or church outside the jurisdicti ...
, was mothballed. Export volumes were expected to drop to between 9 and 10 million tonnes in 2015–16 and again to between 6 and 8 million tonnes from 2017. In October 2015, the company announced that it was working with the South Australian government to facilitate
third party Third party may refer to: Business * Third-party source, a supplier company not owned by the buyer or seller * Third-party beneficiary, a person who could sue on a contract, despite not being an active party * Third-party insurance, such as a Veh ...
use of the Whyalla harbour to make use of its excess capacity.


Divisions

The company had three primary reporting segments before September 2017: *Arrium Mining, which then exported about six million tonnes of
hematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...
ore per year to China from its Middleback Range mines. *Arrium Mining Consumables, which included Moly-Cop grinding media, the largest supplier of grinding media (grinding balls and grinding rods) in the world, servicing the global mining industry, particularly the copper, gold and iron ore sectors. The business sold about 950,000  tonnes of grinding media per year in South America, North America and Australasia. *OneSteel Steel and Recycling was a manufacturing, distribution and recycling businesses. The division manufactured
long steel products In steel industry terminology long steel products or long products refers to steel products including wire, rod, rail, and bars as well as types of steel structural sections and girders. Overview The term long products may include hot rolled bar, c ...
, structural pipe and tube, and wire products in Australia; it distributed structural steel and reinforcing products in Australia through about 200 sites and supplied scrap metal to foundries,
smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including Silver mining#Ore processing, silver, iron-making, iron, copper extracti ...
s and
steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...
s in Australia and internationally.


Notes


See also

* List of steel producers


References


Further reading

* (OneSteel lost $195m in the 2018 financial year.)


External links

* {{Authority control Steel companies of Australia Companies formerly listed on the Australian Securities Exchange Companies based in Sydney Mining companies of Australia Mining in South Australia 2000 establishments in Australia