AK Steel to idle Mansfield stainless steel mill

Integrated steelmaker AK Steel will idle its electric arc furnace (EAF) flat-rolled stainless steel mill in Mansfield, Ohio, in the coming days, the latest casualty of coronavirus-related auto industry shutdowns, according to multiple market participants.

Two sources said the mill will be idled on 4 April.

Cleveland-Cliffs, which bought AK Steel earlier this year, told Argus that Mansfield operations will "conform with the needs of our automotive customers."

The mill operates two EAFs and a thin slab continuous caster along with a hot rolling mill to produce ferritic (400 series) and martenistic grades of stainless steel commonly used in automotive applications.

Major US automakers are shut down through much of April after announcing in mid-March they would close to protect their workforce from the spreading coronavirus. Ford said yesterday that it was delaying restarting its North American auto plants indefinitely.

The Mansfield mill's slab caster has a production capacity of 751,000 short tons (st)/yr, while its hot strip mill has a capacity of 551,000 st/yr, according to data from the Association for Iron and Steel Technology.

AK Steel this week idled the 2.2mn st/yr integrated flat-rolled carbon steel mill at its Dearborn Works near Detroit, Michigan, plant due to the falloff in automotive demand.

By Rye Druzin