Ferrous Department

CONSIDERING ALTERNATIVES

EAF steelmakers often complain about the price of their steel scrap feedstock. Keith Busse, president and CEO of Steel Dynamics Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., says his company is doing something about the situation.

Addressing attendees of the ISRI Gulf Coast Chapter Convention in New Orleans in mid-June, Busse provided an update on the company’s alternative iron methods as well as news of an attempt to create a new scrap pricing index.

Busse said SDI’s liquid scrap substitute process is "running fairly well" at the company’s Butler, Ind., mill, producing about 360,000 tons of liquid pig iron yearly. The system also produces hot briquettes ranging from $130 to $170 per ton.

SDI is also adopting the Mesabi Nugget (ITMK3) technology. The company is seeking the appropriate air permits to produce the alternative iron nuggets at its Butler mill and in Silver Bay, Minn.

Busse said the nuggets are made from iron oxide concentrate combined with coal. The musket-ball-sized pellets are magnetic, can be continuously charged and yield 96 percent metallic iron. The technology "holds much more promise, I believe, than our Iron Dynamics system," he said.

While such technology may help contain SDI’s scrap prices, so could another effort in cooperation with Management Science Associates Inc. (MSA), Pittsburgh.

Busse said 10 steelmakers report scrap purchasing data for several grades of ferrous scrap to MSA, who collects the data in an effort to develop a "Raw Material Data Aggregation Service" that can provide steelmakers with "transparent" information on scrap prices.

(Additional news about ferrous scrap, including breaking news and consuming industry reports, is available online at www.RecyclingToday.com.)

August 2004
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