On May 11, Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd announced that the New South Wales Illawarra-based steelmaker Bluescope Steel, has won a contract to supply steel for construction of three new air warfare destroyers for the Royal Australian Navy.
At his announcement before attending a community employment summit for the Illawarra area, which has some of the nation's highest unemployment levels, Mr Rudd told to media that Bluescope won the contract on its own merits and would be supplying up to AU$20 million (US$14.6 million) worth of steel over the next six years to produce around 3,000 mt of steel per ship.
"Bluescope Steel, an Australian company with a proud and long heritage, has beaten the world to win the contract to supply steel to the air warfare destroyer project," said Mr Rudd.
"This is a great achievement. It shows that Australian companies can not only compete for defence projects with the best in the world, but they can win and win on their merits, which is what Bluescope has done," added Mr Rudd.
Asked if the planned emissions trading scheme would affect BlueScope, Mr Rudd said the company indicated it welcomed the government's announcement of a slower start to the scheme, which was now due to start in July 2011 instead of a year earlier.
Earlier it was announced that a Newcastle-based company had won a major building contract for the new navy ships.
Twelve companies competed for the contract.