HarbisonWalker International (HWI) announced that its Alabama One (AL1) manufacturing facility for steel customers in the southern United States is on schedule to open before the end of 2022. HWI is investing approximately $25 million to convert its closed property in Fairfield, Ala., into AL1, a manufacturing, service and distribution hub. Production will initially add approximately 15,000 metric tons annually and ultimately up to 30,000 metric tons as additional equipment is added by 2023. The 200,000-square-foot facility will produce refractories expressly designed for use in low-emission electric-arc furnaces (EAFs). It will produce magnesia-carbon brick for servicing steel ladles, using core raw materials that can be sized accordingly for a full range of steelmaking refractory needs.

Steel Dynamics Inc. entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the equity interest of Roca Acero S.A. de C.V. (Roca). Headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, Roca operates a ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals recycling business. The company’s primary operations are comprised of four scrap processing facilities strategically positioned near high-volume industrial scrap sources located throughout central and northern Mexico. These combined facilities currently ship approximately 575,000 gross tons of scrap annually and have an estimated annual processing capability of approximately 850,000 gross tons.

North Star BlueScope Steel marked the opening of a $700 million facility expansion in Delta, Ohio. The project created more than 100 new jobs and included a third electric-arc furnace (EAF), a second slab caster and a new shuttle facility. The expansion will increase the company’s annual hot-rolled-coil production by 950,000 net tons. The company said it continued to operate throughout the build, and it will make the first slab off the new caster in June.

Tenova was awarded a contract from Tosyali for the supply of an electric-arc furnace (EAF) for its plant in Bethioua, Algeria. This will be the second EAF that Tenova has supplied to this site and is a key component of Tosyali’s current expansion project. The new EAF will be designed to be almost identical to the current EAF, which was supplied in 2016. It will process 2.5 million tons of DRI pellets per year to produce hot-rolled coil (HRC). A charging system will allow charging and melting of more than 12 tons of HDRI (hot DRI) per minute. The composition of the DRI produced and processed at the Bethioua site is adjusted by blending iron concentrates from different sources to achieve the most profitable balance between cost of raw materials and energy.

Nucor Corp. is partnering with the University of Kentucky (UK) Research Foundation to test a carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture system at Nucor Steel Gallatin. This is one of 12 research projects being funded by a Department of Energy grant to advance point-source carbon-capture and storage technologies that can capture CO₂ emissions generated from natural gas power plants and industrial facilities that produce commodities like steel. More than 50 industry and university experts are working together to tackle the difficult challenge of applying carbon-capture and sequestration techniques to an electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking process. Once this pilot is complete, Nucor and UK will have a better understanding of the costs and effectiveness of carbon-capture technology for flue gas with low CO₂ content and the feasibility of replication of this technology at other EAF steel mills.

Nucor awarded Germany’s SMS group a contract for a complete melt shop for its facility to be built in Mason County, W.V. SMS will supply two 190-metric-ton direct-current electric-arc furnaces (DC EAF), two twin-ladle furnaces and two vacuum degassers. The mechanical supply includes several safety-related auxiliaries, the proprietary SMS bottom anode system, two vacuum pumping systems and an equipment layout designed to minimize crane movements. All equipment will be supplied “digital-ready” for incorporation into a data-driven system. The facility will enable Nucor to expand its portfolio in the automotive market. Project completion is scheduled for 2024, with hot commissioning beginning in the second half of 2024.

Sinosteel Engineering & Technology contracted Tenova for the design and supply of a hydrogen-based direct reduction (DR) plant with a capacity of 1 million tons per year. The plant will be installed at Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron & Steel in the Zhanjiang Economic and Technological Zone in Guangdong Province, China. According to Tenova, it will be the largest hydrogen-based DRI facility in China. The Energiron plant will use mainly hydrogen as reducing gas with the possibility to mix it with natural gas and coke oven gas. It will produce cold DRI pellets through an external cooler for potential future hot DRI production and transport to a new EAF mill to be located next to the Energiron plant.

United States Steel Corp. is advancing its metallics strategy by insourcing pig-iron capabilities at Gary Works. The approximately $60 million investment will produce up to 500,000 tons of pig iron annually and provide a critical raw-material input for its electric-arc furnaces (EAF). Once complete, the Gary pig-iron production is expected to provide nearly 50% of Big River Steel’s other ore-based metallics needs.

ArcelorMittal confirmed with the government of Ontario its plan for a $1.4 billion investment in decarbonization technologies at ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s plant in Hamilton. The investment will reduce annual CO₂ emissions at the facility by approximately 3 million metric tons, which represents approximately 60% of emissions. This means the Hamilton plant will transition away from the blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steelmaking production route to the direct reduced iron (DRI)/electric-arc furnace (EAF) production route. The project is scheduled to be complete by 2028.

United States Steel Corp. broke ground in Osceola, Ark., on the company’s next-generation highly sustainable and technologically advanced steel mill. According to U.S. Steel, the $3 billion steelmaking facility will be the most advanced in North America and largest private project in the history of Arkansas. The plant will be adjacent to U. S. Steel’s Big River Steel, and the two facilities will be known as Big River Steel Works. The facility is expected to bring 900 plant jobs to the area, along with thousands of construction jobs. It will include two electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) with 3 million tons per year of advanced steelmaking capability, an endless casting and rolling line and advanced finishing capabilities.