Cleveland Cliffs Plans for Middletown mill

[Guest]

My point was that not all US integrated mills are old and inefficient. Middletown is most likely much less efficient that Cleveland hence that's why it is being upgraded

It is true that EAF's are more efficient, but the best integrated mills will be running for a long time. Hence Cliffs rebuilding of the Cleveland blast furnace last year.

[Guest]

Uh, the mill being discussed is not Cleveland but Middletown, the ex Armco / AK steel. None of the integrated mills can meet the efficiency of mini mills with electric arc furnaces. Nucor, steel dynamics and the others make high quality steel products at an average of 18% production savings. They have been around 40 yrs now( Nucor) and some others 25-30 yrs..Nucor is the largest domestic producer in the US. You see all the new ELR plants and conversions. Blast furnace mills are on borrowed time. Is true that Cleveland makes high quality automotive grade steel. But for how much longer?

[Guest]

Not surprised to hear this. That mill has been on the chopping block for years because of its pollution record and location. Like all remaining integrated mills in the US it’s old outdated and inefficient.

The Cleveland mill was ArcelorMittal's most efficient plant in the world when they owned it. Doubt much has changed.

[Guest]

Did read that the DRI plant and the existing BOF will produce the same amount of iron as the existing Blast Furnace. So no change in the boat delivered tonnage perhaps?

Cliffs also sounds like they won't be adding a lot of scrap to the electric arc furnaces. Interesting that they plan on using Green Hydrogen" in the DRI plant. Not sure where they are going to get that from.

[Guest]

Not surprised to hear this. That mill has been on the chopping block for years because of its pollution record and location. Like all remaining integrated mills in the US it’s old outdated and inefficient.

[Guest]

After receiving a significant Federal grant, tt appears that Cleveland Cliffs will be shutting down it's blast furnace operation at the ex-Armco mill. Replacement will be by a combination of a 2.5mtpa Hydrogen-Ready Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) Plant and two 120 MW Electric Melting Furnaces (EMF) to feed molten iron to the existing infrastructure already on site.

Not sure what the total impact will be on lake shipping as the DRI plant will need iron ore. The question will be how much scrap (if any) they will use in addition to the DRI pellets. Biggest losers will be the coal miners, met coke producers and the railroads. Natural gas consumption will also increase to make the pellets.

The replacement of the coke with natural gas will significantly reduce CO2 emissions.