Hybar commissions rebar rolling mill in Arkansas

Startup company says it will begin installing its recycled steel-fed electric arc furnace this month.

hybar steel site arkansas
Hybar says its first rebar was produced 22 months after it broke ground at its 1,300-acre greenfield site in Osceola, Arkansas.
Photo courtesy of Hybar LLC

Hybar LLC and its CEO Dave Stickler have declared the company is ”open for business” after announcing the firm’s rolling mill is producing steel rebar from billets.

The Osceola, Arkansas-based company says the rebar was produced 22 months after Hybar broke ground at its 1,300-acre greenfield site in Osceola.

Over the coming month, Hybar intends to begin commissioning its 105-ton electric arc furnace (EAF) and continuous caster while also completing commissioning of its rolling mill and a solar and battery storage facility.

The new Hybar EAF melt shop is expected to consume up to 700,000 tons per year of ferrous scrap to produce some 630,000 tons per year of recycled-content steel rebar.

“Hybar’s first day as a company was Aug. 1, 2023,” Stickler says. “We had $1 billion of financing, three employees and huge ambitions. Our plan was to build the world’s most technically advanced, environmentally sustainable rebar steel minimill, along with our own Mississippi River port, and the largest behind-the-meter solar and battery storage facility in the United States.

“I am extremely proud to say, ‘mission accomplished.’ Hats off to the Hybar team and our construction contractors for a job well done.”

The steelmaker credits Germany-based SMS Group GmbH as the provider of Hybar’s EAF, continuous caster, rolling mill and water treatment plant.

Arizona-based Depcom Power Inc. is designing and building the solar and battery storage facility in Osceola.

The Primetals Technologies USA LLC business unit of London-based Primetals provided the majority of Hybar’s on-site electrical infrastructure, including a substation and power distribution network.

Hybar says its “behind-the-meter” solar and battery storage facility will allow it to be the only steelmaker in North America that, when the sun is shining, can produce steel using 100 percent renewable power.

The company says its rebar products (and presumably its inbound scrap) will be shipped via barge on the Mississippi, Tennessee, Ohio and Arkansas Rivers; via rail on BNSF Railway Co. and other freight rail networks; and via truck on nearby highways.

“Being able to build three projects in 22 months using our $1 billion, which included our contingency, is a testament to the great team assembled at Hybar, and the partnership Hybar formed with [Arkansas-based] Lexicon Inc., the construction manager for all three projects,” Hybar Chief Financial Officer Ari Levy says.

Hybar and several related corporate entities, including Green & Clean Holdings LLC (parent company); Green & Clean Power LLC (solar and battery storage); and Green & Clean Terminals LLC (river port), are owned by a consortium of companies and funds. That consortium includes the San Francisco-based TPG Rise Climate fund; Kansas-based Koch Minerals & Trading LLC; Global Principal Partners LLC, which is an investment entity owned by Hybar's senior management team; and Houston-based energy firm Quanta Services Inc.

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