BlueScope Steel, flush with cash thanks to soaring steel prices, announced a doubling of its half-year net profit to a record $485 million on Monday and unveiled plans for a $200 million off-market buyback.

STRENGTH in global markets and the lower Australian dollar have prompted BlueScope Steel to predict 20 per cent higher profits this year.

BOOMING demand for tubular steel from the construction industry has prompted Smorgon Steel Group to invest $17 million expanding its Queensland plant.

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto have settled protracted negotiations with Japanese steel mills, securing 9 per cent prices hikes for iron ore from their West Australian operations.

Another pillar of Brambles' empire may have struck trouble, with one of the biggest customers of the UK industrial services business struggling financially and facing an uncertain future.

BHP Steel will export more high-value hot rolled coil to the US after a US Government decision to wind back controversial steel tariffs introduced a year ago.

Shanghai had 40 percent of the world's building cranes when BHP Steel Ltd.'s Michael Wolley arrived in 1997. China's construction boom hasn't stopped and may help Australia's No. 1 steelmaker beat its 2003 profit forecast.

ONESTEEL has moved a step closer to finalising its transformation after its spin-off from BHP with a sharp rise in earnings and dividends.

After several rough years, the American steel industry may be starting to find its way out of the financial doldrums.

Steel-producing countries agreed on Thursday to step up efforts to cut subsidies to the industry and reduce capacity, with the United States and the European Union glossing over a row about hefty U.S. import tariffs.