JSW to restart Ohio EAF next week

JSW Steel USA will resume melting at its electric arc furnace (EAF) minimill in Mingo Junction, Ohio, the week of 8 March.

The 1.5mn metric tonne (t)/yr (1.65mn short ton/year) furnace is the first idled EAF-based flat-rolled capacity to re-enter the market in 2021.

JSW has sold out its March and April tons totaling over 50,000 short tons (st), chief executive Mark Bush told Argus. He expects production to fully ramp in three months.

"It is a very rapid ramp rate, very aggressive, but it's the style that this team has," Bush said. 'We're going to push this equipment to the limits, and right now we're in the best market the steel industry has seen in some time."

The US flat-rolled market has remained undersupplied since mid-August, and prices have more than doubled and held above $1,200/st since 19 January. Capacity utilization rates have risen to 77.2pc for the week ending 27 February, but are still below the pre-Covid 19 rate of 80pc and above.

The Mingo Junction mill has been idled since the third quarter of 2020 as it underwent upgrades to the furnace and other production technology. The mill will produce slabs that can either be re-rolled into hot-rolled coil (HRC), sold as slabs to third parties, or shipped to JSW's plate and pipe mill in Baytown, Texas.

The plate mill was restarted on 25 February, ahead of schedule. The plate mill has undergone equipment upgrades that will allow it to better reach its nameplate capacity, JSW said. The company is targeting plate production of 65,000 st/month, Bush said.

The restart of the Mingo Junction mill would add HRC supply to a market that has remained undersupplied despite some recent additions. US Steel-owned Big River Steel doubled its capacity to 3.3mn short tons (st)/yr with a 1.65mn short ton (st)/yr expansion in November. US Steel also brought up the remaining idled blast furnace at its Gary Works in Indiana in December. Integrated steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs recently idled its Middletown blast furnace for maintenance and restarted its idled Cleveland Works No 6 blast furnace to cover some of the lost production. The Middletown blast furnace has an operating capacity of 2.09mn t/yr, while the Cleveland No 6 blast furnace has a capacity of 1.37mn t/yr, according to data from the Association for Iron and Steel Technology.

By Rye Druzin