Gerdau EAF mill profiled by local media outlet

An electric arc furnace (EAF) steel rebar mill in Florida operated by Brazil-based Gerdau has been profiled in a “Made in Jacksonville” series by that Florida city’s local newspaper and news website.

The online article prepared by the Florida Times-Union describes the mill’s role in converting obsolete auto bodies and appliances into new reinforcing bar (rebar) steel.

The article says the recycling conversion process takes place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and the mill’s feedstock includes “old cars, appliances [and] just about anything made of metal [that is] melted and turned into  miles of red glowing ropes of steel.”

The Times-Union article says the Gerdau Jacksonville mill melts about 550,000 tons of scrap metal each year to produce “about 150,000 miles of [rebar] each year” as well as “about 18,000 miles of wire rod” annually.

Carlos Zanoela, vice president and general manager of the Gerdau Ameristeel Jacksonville mill, is quoted as saying the mill’s adjacent scrap yard buys much as 95 percent of its feedstock from smaller scrap dealers, with the rest coming from peddlers in pickup trucks.

The mill’s EAF system, says Zanoela, can melt 100 tons of scrap in about 32 minutes.  The mill GM says most of the rebar heads into construction applications (where it often competes against imported Turkish rebar) and the wire is used by regional manufacturers, including a maker of shelving.