adelaide australiabluescope steel ltd raised its bet on the us economy as it said on monday that it had agreed to buy cornerstone building brands incs coil coatings business for 500 million australiabased bluescopeowner of the north star minimill in delta ohiohas been beefing up its us presence to meet what it expects to be strong demand from car makers and construction companies the acquisition of the second largest metal painter in the us was a natural next step for bluescope which runs a number of metal coatings businesses globally said chief executive mark vassella it reflects the companys confidence in the us economic outlook despite some shortterm supply chain challenges added mr vassella who said bluescope will continue to look for ways to expand its north american operations we have said for some time the us market is a great opportunity for us to continue to grow and we think this is a very logical step for us given the capability we have mr vassella said in an interview foreign businesses across a range of industries have been lured to the us by the prospect of a solid economic rebound underpinned by massive infrastructure investment cornerstone buildings coil coatings business has seven facilities and a total capacity around 900000 metric tons a year the acquisition replaces a proposal bluescope had been drawing up to build a new factory for painted steel products on the east coast bluescope already runs metal coating and painting operations in california called steelscape i know theres some shortterm issues being dealt with around supply chains right now said mr vassella highlighting the disruptions to auto manufacturing from a global semiconductor shortage but we are quite confident in the us market going forward its still strong bluescope is spending 770 million to add a third electric arc furnace and a second caster for molten steel at its north star facility north star sells steel to customers in the us midwest in particular automotive and construction companies the almostcompleted expansion will increase the mills capacity by roughly 40 a socalled debottlenecking project to further raise capacity at the mill could follow bluescope is also establishing a recycling business in the us in december it acquired the ferrous scrap steel recycling business of metalx a major scrap steel supplier to north star for around 220 million while it is raising steel production at north star bluescope wants to build its portfolio downstream rather than trying to rival north americas top steel producers mr vassella said we have a bit on our plate right now to get this settled down and integrated into the family but we think there will be opportunities in the future in north america again said mr vassella bluescope has spent decades building its us business with momentum gaining in recent years after it took control of the north star operation in 2015 reducing its reliance on its home market for profits the latest acquisition almost triples bluescopes us metallic coating and painting capacity to more than 13 million tons a year and gives the australian steelmaker an immediate foothold on the east coast the coil coatings business recorded net sales of 2149 million in 2021 mr vassella said the operations were only running around 60 capacity so there are opportunities within the footprint that we have to grow he said cornerstone building a large manufacturer of exterior building products said it wants to focus on its core growth markets it said it will enter into longterm supply agreements with bluescope cornerstone building in march said it had reached a deal to be acquired by privateequity firm clayton dubilier  rice llc its major shareholder mr vassella said bluescope jumped at the chance to buy the coil coatings business the agreement was negotiated over the past three weeks we were kind of running this project 247 quite frankly he said we wanted to act quickly