Westview Group is planning to build a $750m ‘green’ steel mill amid concerns over supply

One of Australia’s largest steel businesses will start building a state-of-the-art ‘green’ mill in Brisbane next year, amid concerns over supply.

An artist's impression of Westview Group’s Pinkenba steel mill, planned to open in 2027.

One of Australia’s largest steel businesses, Westview Group, is planning to build a $750m low-carbon mill in Brisbane, at a time when concern over supplies is rising as major supplier Sanjeev Gupta’s empire fights for its future.

Founded by the Johnston family in 1995, the privately owned West Australian-based company operates a number of brands – including Bestbar, Alter Steel, Wire Industries and Unipod – and in the last financial year recorded $803m in annual revenue.

However, due to an increasing reliance on imported, poorer-quality reinforcing steel from Chinese suppliers, Westview chief executive Grant Johnston said they were seeking to have their steel mill at Pinkenba, near the airport in the Port of Brisbane, operating by 2027.

The furnace will be developed by Westview’s Alter Steel and aims to be the first ‘green’ steel mill operating in Australia and producing locally sourced sustainable reinforcement steel.

Westview Group chief executive Grant Johnston.

“Once in production, the Pinkenba steel mill will deliver the cleanest steel in Australia,” Mr Johnston said.

“Australia uses about 1.7 million tonnes of reinforcing steel each year, and we are seeing a rise in the amount of imported steel with no quality control or carbon emissions standards.

“We need more locally produced, low-carbon, high-quality steel to help our construction

industry reach its sustainability goals, while also being able to rely on local supply for critical

infrastructure projects.

“And if we are going to achieve net-zero by 2050, we need every tonne to be produced in a

way that emits less carbon. Projects like the Pinkenba steel mill are how we will get there.”

Westview sells steel bars and thick wire used to reinforce concrete slabs in the construction industry, and major players including Lendlease, John Holland and CPB Contractors are among its customers.

With construction to begin in 2025, it’s planned that by late 2027, the new Pinkenba facility will be on its way to producing up to 500,000 tonnes of low-carbon reinforcing steel annually, to meet more than 25 per cent of Australia’s local demand. Westview will fund the mill through a mixture of equity, debt and working capital finance.

The steel mill should help fill the gap if Mr Gupta’s empire falls.

The British industrialist’s InfraBuild faced a surge of competition as Chinese producers looked offshore for sales and local demand fell because of a weakening construction sector.

That meant a glut of cheap products had hit the global market, hurting steel manufacturers around the world including Mr Gupta’s InfraBuild, which supplies about 70 per cent of the steel Westview distributes.

InfraBuild had also been badly affected by Mr Gupta’s Whyalla steelworks’ ageing furnace.

Mr Gupta’s GFG Alliance had plans to replace that furnace with a low-carbon alternative but the overhaul was running two years behind schedule.

Last week, Mr Gupta’s Speciality Steel UK unit went to court to try to avoid liquidation.

The new Pinkenba steel mill will use the latest technologies, including an electric arc furnace that can be powered by renewable energy in the future.

The mill will use locally recycled scrap metal and result in 80 per cent less emissions per tonne of steel, as compared to traditional production methods.

Westview said the high-quality, low-carbon steel would sell at a similar price point to traditional steel mills.

The Port of Brisbane has been instrumental in the mill’s development, helping Alter Steel secure its prime location within the port, ensuring access to critical services and efficient logistics, further reducing emissions and costs.

Mr Johnston described it as a “generational investment”.

‘It’s not just about producing sustainable steel – it’s about creating real long-term growth for Queensland, supporting local jobs, and building a resilient, competitive steel sector,” he said.