John Nowlan, BlueScope’s head of steel manufacturing in Australia, was at Port Kembla this week and he said the future was looking a bit brighter.

“I think we all feel a lot more upbeat, that’s for sure,” Mr Nowlan said.

Part of the reason for this is the company’s recent half-year profit of $359.1 million – a 79 per cent improvement on the same time last year.

But Mr Nowlan said they couldn’t afford to relax and think the hard work was over.

“We’ve come a long way, we’ve still got plenty of challenges and we’re still working on them,” Mr Nowlan said.

“Obviously we can’t take it for granted. I’m really happy about the progress we’ve made but we need to keep working to make sure we keep going forwards and don’t slip backwards.”