Steel Mills

JSW USA Delaying EAF at Baytown

August 25, 2019

JSW USA is delaying construction of an electric arc furnace at its Baytown facility due to current market conditions.

“While JSW USA is fully under way in modernizing the Plate Mill at Baytown, Texas, given the current market conditions and the prevailing policy environment, the company has for now decided to put on hold the backward integration project of installing an electric arc furnace and slab caster at Baytown,” said JSW USA CEO John Hritz in a statement.

“JSW USA, however, remains committed to being a fully Melt and Manufactured enterprise in the U.S. and is working diligently on ramping up Mingo Junction’s 1.5mtpa EAF and Caster in Ohio.”

JSW USA broke ground for the Baytown EAF in October and was supposed to complete the $500 million project by mid-2020. JSW is unsure when construction will resume.

In addition to the EAF, a $250 million modernization of the plate mill at Baytown is under way with completion anticipated by December 2020. JSW has already begun shipping slabs from its Mingo Junction mill in Ohio to Baytown.

“We’re achieving two things,” said Group CFO Seshagiri Rao during the JSW Steel earnings call in July. “One is full utilization at Mingo. The second…is that we are complying with the condition of melted and manufactured within the USA, so slabs are produced within the USA. That will make the plate and pipe mill of Baytown qualified for government orders.”