A plant was established in the Newcastle suburb of Waratah with Howard Smith acquiring a shareholding. After Vickers acquired a shareholding, in 1923 it was renamed Vickers Commonwealth Steel Products. In the 1930s, BHP gradually bought out the other shareholders and it became the Commonwealth Steel Company.[1] In 1959, a mill was opened in Unanderra for the cold rolling of stainless steel.[2][3] In 1971, Comsteel was licensed by Midland-Ross to produce couplers, draft gears and freight wagon bogies.[4]
In 1983, Commonwealth Steel Company and the Australian subsidiary of Vickers merged to form Comsteel with BHP and Vickers each holding 38% shareholdings.[2] In 1985 Comsteel was purchased by Australian National Industries (ANI).[5]
It was included in the 1999 takeover of ANI by Smorgon Steel which in turn was purchased by OneSteel in 2007.[6] Since 2016 it has been owned by American Industrial Partners.[7][8][9]
