In that year former BlueScope CEO Paul O'Malley put two options on the table - either find $200 million in annual savings or the Port Kembla steelworks would close.

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The unions went over the books and agreed with the company's assessment of its position.

Those unions then managed to convince steelworkers to take a three-year pay freeze and agree to job cuts in the order of 500 positions.

The reasoning behind the cuts was to ensure the steelmaker was resilient enough to be able to survive the inevitable downturns in the steel industry - and also take advantage of the boom times.

That's what has greeted BlueScope in the last financial year; on Monday, the steelmaker reported a $2.81 billion net profit after before-tax earnings of $3.79 billion.

That pre-tax figure is the company's biggest earnings year since it was spun off from BHP in 2002.

BlueScope CEO Mark Vassella said the result was a reward for the years of hard work starting with 2015.

"Everyone looks at the number and says 'what a fantastic year'," Vassella said.

"The real takeaway for the Illawarra is this is 10 years of hard work, the transformation we went through all those years ago resetting the business.

"We've had some external circumstances that have been favourable over the last year but what most pleasing about all of that is we've been in a position because of where the business is to take advantage of that."

For Vassella that means having the capital to be able to reinvest in upgrades at Port Kembla, including the planned blast furnace reline and a $70 million pipe and tube mill.

The steelmaker is also considering expanding its metal coating capacity.

"That's really the story in a nutshell," Mr Vassella said.

"A lot of hard work by a lot of people over 10 years in the Illawarra has now got us in a position where we've been able to take advantage of the favorable market conditions, which allows us to reinvest in the business."

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