Although steelmaking is considered a mature industry by most economic measures, high stakes investments continue to be made in scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking in North America.
When compared with the 2017 edition of Recycling Today’s list and map of EAF mills, our 2021 version displays several new facilities and increased melting capacity at others. EAF producers Nucor Corp., Steel Dynamics Inc. and Commercial Metals Co. (CMC) all have opened or are in the process of adding new sites. The large-tonnage Big River Steel mill in Arkansas also now appears on the list, as does the EAF mill recently completed by U.S. Steel Corp. in Fairfield, Alabama, as well as another EAF in Alabama that is being built by ArcelorMittal.
Other mills have changed names, as firms including CMC and Gerdau have bought, sold or swapped steelmaking assets. A few closures also have occurred in the EAF sector, with older mills in Hamilton, Ontario, and Rancho Cucamonga, California, among those that have been phased out permanently. (Several other EAF mills sit idle as 2021 begins.)
This year’s edition of the list and map also includes integrated mill complexes with blast or basic oxygen furnace (BOF) capacity. The number of integrated mills in the U.S. has shrunk steadily since the 1980s and into the 21st century, with just 10 active sites in the U.S. as 2021 gets underway. Once sprawling BOF production sites in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Sparrows Point, Maryland; Fairfield; and Ashland, Kentucky, have been victims of the replacement of BOF production with the EAF process.
U.S. Electric arc furnace (EAF) facilities
1. AK Steel – Dearborn, Michigan
Capacity: 850,000 T/yr. Temporarily idled in April 2020
2. AK Steel – Mansfield, Ohio
Capacity: 600,000 T/yr. (stainless; EAF capacity only) Operating
3. AK Steel – Butler, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 1 million T/yr. (some stainless) Operating
4. Allegheny Technologies Inc. – Brackenridge, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. (stainless) Operating
5. Alton Steel Inc. – Alton, Illinois
Capacity: 750,000 T/yr. Operating
6. ArcelorMittal – Calvert, Alabama
Capacity: 1.5 million T/yr. Under construction
7. ArcelorMittal – LaPlace, Louisiana
Capacity: 683,000 T/yr. Closed
8. Big River Steel – Osceola, Arkansas
Capacity: 3.3 million T/yr. Operating
9. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – Coatesville, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 900,000 T/yr. Operating
10. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – Steelton, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 1 million T/yr. Operating
11. Cascade Steel – McMinnville, Oregon
Capacity: 700,000 T/yr. Operating
12. Charter Steel – Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio
Capacity: 500,000 T/yr. Operating
13. Charter Steel – Saukville, Wisconsin
Capacity: 550,000 T/yr. Operating
14. CMC Steel – Birmingham, Alabama
Capacity: 720,000 T/yr. Operating
15. CMC Steel – Mesa, Arizona
Capacity: 500,000 T/yr. Operating
16. CMC Steel (formerly Gerdau Longsteel North America) – Rancho Cucamonga, California
Capacity: 700,000 T/yr. Closed permanently
17. CMC Steel – Jacksonville, Florida
Capacity: 640,000 T/yr. Operating
18. CMC Steel – Sayreville, New Jersey
Capacity: 800,000 T/yr. Operating
19. CMC Steel – Durant, Oklahoma
Capacity: 390,000 T/yr. Operating
20. CMC Steel – Cayce-West Columbia, South Carolina
Capacity: 800,000 T/yr. Operating
21. CMC Steel – Knoxville, Tennessee
Capacity: 511,000 T/yr. Operating
22. CMC Steel – Seguin, Texas
Capacity: 850,000 T/yr. Operating
23. Ellwood Quality Steels – New Castle, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Operating
24. EVRAZ – Pueblo, Colorado
Capacity: 1.1 million T/yr. Operating
25. EVRAZ – Portland, Oregon
Capacity: 840,000 T/yr. Operating
26. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Cartersville, Georgia
Capacity: 750,000 T/yr. Operating
27. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Wilton, Iowa
Capacity: 330,000 T/yr. Operating
28. Gerdau Longsteel North America – St. Paul, Minnesota
Capacity: 570,000 T/yr. Operating
29. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Charlotte, North Carolina
Capacity: 460,000 T/yr. Operating
30. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Sand Springs, Oklahoma
Capacity: 550,000 T/yr. Closed permanently
31. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Midlothian, Texas
Capacity: 1.8 million T/yr. Operating
32. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Petersburg, Virginia
Capacity: 1 million T/yr. Operating
33. Gerdau Special Steel North America – Fort Smith, Arkansas
Capacity: 420,000 T/yr. Operating
34. Gerdau Special Steel North America – Jackson, Michigan
Capacity: 320,000 T/yr. Operating
35. Gerdau Special Steel North America – Monroe, Michigan
Capacity: 535,000 T/yr. Operating
36. Grupo SIMEC/Republic Engineered Products – Canton, Ohio
Capacity: 1.18 million T/yr. Operating
37. JSW Steel USA – Mingo Junction, Ohio
Capacity: 1.5 million T/yr. Idle; new equipment being installed
38. Kentucky Electric Steel – Ashland, Kentucky
Capacity: 325,000 T/yr. Melt shop closed; an SDI rolling mill only
39. Liberty Steel & Wire (formerly Keystone Steel & Wire) – Peoria, Illinois
Capacity: 700,000 T/yr. Operating
40. Liberty Steel USA – Georgetown, South Carolina
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Idle
41. NLMK Group – Portage, Indiana
Capacity: 770,000 T/yr. Operating
42. North American Stainless – Ghent, Kentucky
Capacity: 1.4 million T/yr. (stainless) Operating
43. North Star-BlueScope Steel – Delta, Ohio
Capacity: 2.1 million T/yr. (announced expansion to 2.95 million T/yr.) Operating
44. Nucor Corp. – Birmingham, Alabama
Capacity: 600,000 T/yr. Operating
45. Nucor Corp. – Decatur, Alabama
Capacity: 2.5 million T/yr. Operating
46. Nucor Corp. – Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Capacity: 1.2 million T/yr. Operating
47. Nucor Corp. – Kingman, Arizona
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Operating
48. Nucor Corp. – Hickman, Arkansas
Capacity: 2.9 million T/yr. (after announced expansion) Operating
49. Nucor Corp. – Wallingford, Connecticut
Capacity: 300,000 T/yr. Operating
50. Nucor Corp. – Frostproof, Florida
Capacity: 350,000 T/yr. Projected to begin operation in late 2020
51. Nucor Corp. – Kankakee, Illinois
Capacity: 860,000 T/yr. Operating
52. Nucor Corp. – Crawfordsville, Indiana
Capacity: 2 million T/yr. Operating
53. Nucor Corp. – Brandenburg, Kentucky
Capacity: 1.2 million T/yr. Projected to open in 2022
54. Nucor Corp. – Ghent, Kentucky
Capacity: 2.9 million T/yr. (after announced expansion) Operating
55. Nucor Corp. – Jackson, Mississippi
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Operating
56. Nucor Corp. – Sedalia, Missouri
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Projected to have started up in December 2020
57. Nucor Corp. – Norfolk, Nebraska
Capacity: 1 million T/yr. Operating
58. Nucor Corp. – Auburn, New York
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Operating
59. Nucor Corp. – Cofield, North Carolina
Capacity: 1.2 million T/yr. Operating
60. Nucor Corp. – Marion, Ohio
Capacity: 400,000 T/yr. Operating
61. Nucor Corp. – Darlington, South Carolina
Capacity: 700,000 T/yr. Operating
62. Nucor Corp. – Mt. Pleasant/Huger, South Carolina
Capacity: 3 million T/yr. (after announced expansion) Operating
63. Nucor Corp. – Memphis, Tennessee
Capacity: 850,000 T/yr. Operating
64. Nucor Corp. – Longview, Texas
Capacity: 180,000 T/yr. Operating
65. Nucor Corp. – Jewett, Texas
Capacity: 850,000 T/yr. Operating
66. Nucor Corp. – Plymouth, Utah
Capacity: 900,000 T/yr. Operating
67. Nucor Corp. – Seattle, Washington
Capacity: 840,000 T/yr. Operating
68. Nucor-Yamato Steel – Blytheville, Arkansas
Capacity: 2.5 million T/yr. Operating
69. Optimus Steel (formerly Gerdau Longsteel North America) – Beaumont, Texas
Capacity: 700,000 T/yr. Operating
70. SSAB – Axis, Alabama
Capacity: 1.25 million T/yr. Operating
71. SSAB – Montpelier, Iowa
Capacity: 1.25 million T/yr. Operating
72. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Butler, Indiana
Capacity: 3 million T/yr. Operating
73. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Columbia City, Indiana
Capacity: >1.8 million T/yr. Operating
74. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Pittsboro, Indiana
Capacity: 620,000 T/yr. Operating
75. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Columbus, Mississippi
Capacity: 3.4 million T/yr. Operating
76. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Sinton, Texas
Capacity: 2.9 million T/yr. Planned startup in mid-2021
77. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Roanoke, Virginia
Capacity: 650,000 T/yr. Operating
78. Steel Dynamics Inc. – Huntington, West Virginia
Capacity: 320,000 T/yr. Operating
79. Tenaris S.A. – Koppel, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 480,000 T/yr. Operating
80. Timken Steel – Canton, Ohio
Capacity: 1.9 million T/yr. Operating
81. United States Steel Corp. – Fairfield, Alabama
Capacity: 1.6 million T/yr. Operating
82. Vallourec Star – Youngstown, Ohio
Capacity: 350,000 T/yr. Operating
83. Warren Steel Holdings – Warren, Ohio
Capacity: 800,000 T/yr. Permanently closed
U.S. integrated mills with blast furnace and BOF capacity
84. Cleveland-Cliffs AK Steel – Dearborn, Michigan
Capacity: 2.8 million T/yr. (blast and BOF capacity only listed) Operating
85. Cleveland-Cliffs AK Steel – Middletown, Ohio
Capacity: 2.6 million T/yr. Operating
86. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – Riverdale, Illinois
Capacity: 900,000 T/yr. Operating
87. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – Burns Harbor, Indiana
Capacity: 4.4 million T/yr. Operating
88. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – East Chicago, Indiana
Capacity: 4.5 million T/yr. Operating
89. Cleveland-Cliffs (formerly ArcelorMittal) – Cleveland, Ohio
Capacity: 3.2 million T/yr. Operating
90. United States Steel Corp. – Granite City, Illinois
Capacity: 2.8 million T/yr. Operating
91. United States Steel Corp. – Gary, Indiana
Capacity: 7.5 million T/yr. Operating
92. United States Steel Corp. – River Rouge and Ecorse, Michigan
Capacity: 3.8 million T/yr. Operating
93. United States Steel Corp. – Braddock, Pennsylvania
Capacity: 2.9 million T/yr. Operating
EAF/CANADA
1. Altasteel Ltd. – Edmonton, Alberta
Capacity: 330,000 T/yr. Operating
3. EVRAZ – Regina, Saskatchewan
4. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Selkirk, Manitoba
5. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Cambridge, Ontario
6. Gerdau Longsteel North America – Whitby, Ontario
8. IVACO Rolling mills – L’Original, Ontario
BOF/CANADA
10. ArcelorMittal – Hamilton, Ontario
11. Stelco – Nanticoke, Ontario
EAF/MEXICO
1. Altos Hornos – Monclova, Coahuila
Capacity: 1.3 million T/yr. (EAF capacity only) Operating
2. ArcelorMittal – Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán
Capacity: 4 million T/yr. Operating
3. Deacero – Ramos Arizpe/Saltillo, Coahuila
Capacity: 2.2 million T/yr. Operating
Capacity: 2.3 million T/yr. Operating
6. Grupo SIMEC – Guadalajara, Jalisco
Capacity: 490,000 T/yr. Operating
8. Grupo SIMEC – Apizaco, Tlaxcala
9. Tenaris Tamsa – Veracruz, Veracruz
10. Ternium – Monterrey, Nuevo León
11. Ternium – Xoxtla, Puebla
BOF/MEXICO
13. ArcelorMittal – Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacán