SDI Ends Participation in JV

Steel Dynamics, Inc. has decided to discontinue the participation of its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ferrous Resources LLC, in the development and construction of a commercial iron nugget plant at Hoyt Lakes, Minn. The four year old joint venture project with four other participants -- IronUnits LLC (Cleveland Cliffs), Kobe Iron Nugget LLC (Kobe Steel), Ferrometrics, Inc. and Iron Range Resources, an agency of the State of Minnesota -- built and operated a pilot plant at Silver Bay, Minnesota to validate Kobe's ITmk3 iron nugget technology and has been involved in negotiations over the past several years to build a large scale demonstration plant as the next phase in the commercialization of the technology.

In announcing its decision to suspend its current financial involvement and participation in the project, Mark Millett, Steel Dynamics' VP, said: "While we are pleased that our efforts and those of the other participants in this project to date have established the merits of the iron nugget technology and have confirmed that a large scale demonstration plant could be constructed to produce commercial quality iron nuggets in sufficient quantity; we and our joint venture partners have simply not been able to conclude definitive agreements to fully address all of the many operating and financial issues that require resolution prior to our further commitment of time and resources to the project. We will continue to explore opportunities to use Kobe's ITmk3 process in another project as and when circumstances change."