Steel Market Update began checking with our mill sources Sunday morning and again today to see if there was any interruptions at Nucor Berkeley, USS Fairless or RG Steel Sparrows Point due to the hurricane.

Early indications are Nucor Berkeley was not affected as the hurricane went north of their South Carolina plant.

U.S. Steel advised us, "Fairless was prepared safely for the hurricane and no damage to the operations or line were sustained."

RG Steel responded to our inquiries late this morning and they advised us they had an orderly shut down (idling) of the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BOF)on Friday approximately 12 hours before the hurricane hit Sparrows Point. The mill was down for 28 hours according to the RG Steel spokeswoman and came back online on Sunday. The company advised SMU the downtime would not impact any customer orders or shipments.

Steel Market Update will continue to monitor the situation and will advise if we learn of any changes to our initial reporting.