Nucor suspends Trinidad DRI production

US steelmaker Nucor has shut down its direct reduced iron (DRI) plant in Trinidad and Tobago in order to comply with government orders put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Nucor told Argus its US electric arc furnace (EAF) steel operations — which use DRI as a feedstock alongside ferrous scrap and other metallics — will use existing DRI inventory and "are not affected by the outage."

Nucor also operates a DRI plant in Louisiana.

The US imported 1.7mn metric tonnes of DRI from Trinidad in 2019, up by 12pc from the prior year, according to US Commerce data.

By Rye Druzin