JSW to idle Mingo Junction EAF on demand, upgrades

JSW Steel USA will idle its electric arc furnace (EAF) flat-rolled steel mill in Mingo Junction, Ohio, due to declining demand and pending upgrades.

Chief executive John Hritz said the company is completing existing orders and will likely close the EAF by the end of August. Market demand has taken a significant hit because of the virus, and the company will be taking the opportunity to begin the process of removing the current 1.5mn metric ton (t)/yr EAF for replacement with a new Tenova Consteel EAF with the same capacity.

Hritz would not say how long it would take to install the new EAF. He previously said he expected the upgrades to be completed in 2021.

Mingo Junction took a two-month outage from the end of April through June to install new automation systems associated with the furnace upgrade.

The upgraded EAF will allow the Mingo Junction mill to produce 12-inch slabs that will be supplied to the company's pipe and plate mill in Baytown, Texas, and other customers.

JSW was slated to buy 30,000-60,000gt of scrap in the July ferrous trade, but reversed course in the week leading up to the trade, according to market participants who said the company cancelled orders and completely exited the trade. Hritz said he was unfamiliar with the details of the scrap deals.

Prices for prime ferrous scrap in most of the US fell by $40/gross ton (gt) in the July buy because of weak demand.

The mill, which is part of the US subsidiary of Indian steelmaker JSW Steel, produced more than 73,000 metric tonnes (t) of hot rolled coil (HRC) in the quarter ended 31 March, up by 32pc from a year earlier.

The mill idling adds to at least 13.22mn t/yr of integrated steel production that remains off line after Covid-19-related manufacturing shutdowns rippled across the US steel industry.

Still, some mills are preparing to return to service. Integrated steelmaker AK Steel's 2mn t/yr Dearborn Works mill is expected to start melting this month, and will ship steel slabs south to the company's Middletown Works north of Cincinnati for rolling. Parent company Cleveland-Cliffs shut down Dearborn's hot strip mill this month to improve efficiency.

By Rye Druzin and Brad MacAulay