US steelmaker Nucor will take down its flat-rolled mill in Gallatin, Kentucky, for planned maintenance on 23 November to 17 December as it works to commission a new electric arc furnace.
The outage will integrate a 1.4mn short ton/yr flat-rolled expansion at the 1.6mn st ton/yr mill.
Nucor expects the additional expansion to produce 1mn st in 2022 before ramping up to full capacity in 2023.
The outage could take out nearly 110,000st of hot-rolled coil (HRC) capacity from the market. The galvanizing line at the Gallatin mill will continue to run throughout the outage.
The Gallatin maintenance comes as Cleveland-Cliffs moved up maintenance outages for its Burns Harbor, Indiana, blast furnaces and the Dearborn, Michigan, hot end to the fourth quarter, also taking out sheet steel supply at time when prices have begun declining after a year-long rally.
US HRC prices have dropped by $130/st from a record high on 14 September to $1,840/st ex-works Midwest as of 9 November.
