U.S. Steel | ý Our Members Bring Choice, Value & Innovation to Agriculture Wed, 19 Jan 2022 17:09:36 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.2.4 /wp-content/uploads/2023/09/fema-favicon-75x75.png U.S. Steel | ý 32 32 U.S. Steel Doubles Capacity Near Big River Mill /news/u-s-steel-doubles-capacity-near-big-river-mill/ Wed, 19 Jan 2022 17:09:35 +0000 /?p=16683 U.S. Steel Corp. will build a steel mill in Osceola, Ark., near the company’s existing Big River Steel mill. The new $3 billion mini mill will add two electric arc furnaces to the site and almost double its annual capacity, increasing it by 3 million tons of raw steel to 6.3 million tons per year.

The announcement comes amid an extended supply chain crisis that has made it more difficult for manufacturers to get their hands on finished steel and a long-term trend in domestic steel companies toward expansion.

The company said steel from the new mill will target automotive, appliance, and construction end-markets with a product mix of 40 percent cold-rolled steel, 30 percent hot-rolled and 30 percent coated steel.

The company expects the mill to be operational in 2024.

Source: Industry Week

]]> Construction of Steel Mill Could Ease Price Pressures /featured-small/construction-of-steel-mill-could-ease-price-pressures/ Tue, 21 Sep 2021 19:02:59 +0000 /?p=15353 United States Steel Corp. plans to build a new steel mill in the U.S. next year.
The company said last week the new mill will have the capacity to produce three million tons of sheet steel annually, boosting its sheet-steel capacity by about 20 percent and helping to alleviate tight supplies of steel in the domestic market.

The U.S. Steel mill would increase new production capacity under construction or planned in the U.S. to about 12 million tons annually, or almost 21 percent of sheet-steel consumption in 2019.

The new mill represents a bet by U.S. Steel that demand will remain elevated for an extended time, keeping steel prices high even as competing steelmakers pursue their own expansions.

The spot market price for sheet steel is nearly $2,000 a ton, up from less than $500 a ton during summer 2020, according to S&P Global Platts.

Strong prices and rising profits have allowed U.S. Steel to pay down debt after struggling for years with precarious finances stemming from low steel prices and high costs for maintaining its older mills.

“We have the winds at our backs. Steel prices seem to be sustainable,” Chief Executive David Burritt said.

The company expects to begin construction on the new mill during the first half of 2022 with a goal of starting production in 2024, Burritt said. The company will likely consider building in Alabama and Arkansas, where U.S. Steel already operates mills that use the same production process as that planned for the new mill.

Manufacturers have complained that domestic steelmakers have exacerbated shortages of steel and contributed to higher prices by taking production capacity out of service.

Industry analysts say about seven million tons of steel capacity have been idled since the pandemic started last year. That amounted to about 12 percent of domestic steel consumption in 2019.

Steel industry executives have said the industry is producing at the highest rate since before the 2008 financial crisis, and that producers are adding new capacity. Analysts have projected that new, efficient mills under construction will push down steel prices by lowering operating costs and increasing production.

Source: Wall Street Journal

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