Bradken Limited (ASX: BKN) is a global manufacturing company headquartered in Australia. The company is a component of the S&P/ASX 200 index. Bradken has 26 manufacturing facilities throughout Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America and China.
Bradken is a manufacturer and supplier of differentiated, consumable cast steel products and associated maintenance and refurbishment services to the global resources, freight rail and energy industries. The Company's product range includes ground engaging tools, crawler systems, mill and crusher liners, freight wagon, rail bogies and engineered products.
The Bradken business was originally established in 1922 as Bradford Kendall by two BHP steelworks employees - Leslie Bradford and Jim Kendall.[1] In December 1974 the company officially changed its name to Bradken Consolidated Limited.[2] Between 1981 and 2000, the Bradken business was a division of Australian National Industries Limited (ANI), an under-performing industrial conglomerate. ANI was taken over by Smorgon Steel in 2000 and broken up. The Bradken casting business was sold to private equity and subsequently refloated on the ASX in August 2004. Since then, the company has performed strongly due to the demand for its products from the booming Australian mining industry.
On Tuesday, 29 July 2008, Bradken announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the remaining 83% equity interest in AmeriCast Technologies, Inc. (“AmeriCast”) that it did not already own from funds managed by Castle Harlan, Inc. and AmeriCast management. The business has become known as the Engineered Products Division.