By Rhiannon Hoyle

BlueScope Steel's new chief executive officer outlined plans to make more cost savings and boost shareholder returns, after the Australian company last month rebuffed a roughly US$8.8 billion takeover plan involving U.S. steelmaker Steel Dynamics.

Tania Archibald, who succeeds former CEO Mark Vassella, said she supported the BlueScope board's rejection of a bid by Steel Dynamics and Australia's SGH to buy and break up the company. Under the proposal, SGH would acquire all of BlueScope's assets and then sell the North American businesses to Steel Dynamics.

The takeover bid is the fourth involving Steel Dynamics since late 2024. Last week, the Indiana-based company's CEO, Mark Millett, told analysts that Steel Dynamics is "the logical owner" of BlueScope's North American assets, arguing it could unlock value from them at a time U.S. hot-rolled coil production capacity is expected to rise.

But Archibald said the takeover plan "very significantly undervalued this company." She said the board remains open to "any proposal that genuinely reflects BlueScope's fundamental value. But we are not sitting here waiting."

BlueScope expects to "rebase shareholder returns substantially higher" as it finishes a 2 billion Australian dollar, or US$1.39 billion, investment program and grows its earnings base, Archibald said.

She said BlueScope is nearing completion of a A$200 million cost and productivity campaign and "is well underway" in pursuing a A$500 million annual earnings growth target. "Execution is critical and I will drive it hard," she said in a video message.

Archibald said BlueScope will streamline its leadership and functional teams to simplify how it operates, and will target further cost improvements of roughly A$150 million on an annualized basis. Those initiatives will be put in place by June 30, she said.

She said Bluescope is also moving quickly to bring in partners to develop a portfolio of surplus land that the company estimates could be valued at as much as A$2.8 billion, based on gains from a recent sale.

Archibald joined the company in 1996, when it was part of BHP Group, and from 2018 to 2023 served as its chief financial officer. She was most recently chief of its Australian Steel Products arm, the company's largest operating division spanning more than 100 sites including its Port Kembla Steelworks.

BlueScope announced her appointment as CEO in November, just weeks before the joint bid from Steel Dynamics and SGH.

Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 01, 2026 17:33 ET (22:33 GMT)

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