Steel Products

USS Edgar Thomson Plant Hit by Unplanned Outage: Sources
Written by Michael Cowden
April 6, 2021
U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson Plant in Braddock, Pa., has been hit by an unplanned outage stemming from a burst water main, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Crews have been working to repair the issue at the Pittsburgh-area steel mill since approximately 2:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, April 6, they said.
U.S. Steel, which is based in Pittsburgh, did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this article.
It’s not clear how long the repairs will take. And it’s possible that they could be completed within a day or a matter or days, sources said. But the outage has in the meantime resulted in both blast furnaces at Edgar Thomson being taken offline as well as the mill’s basic oxygen furnace, slab caster and powerhouse, they said.
One source described the mill as at a “standstill.”
Edgar Thomson, which is part of U.S. Steel’s Mon Valley Works, has two blast furnaces, the No. 1, which has annual capacity of 1.09 million tons, and the No. 3, which sports capacity of 1 million tons per year, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology’s 2021 directory of iron and steel plants.
The facility melts iron ore from Minnesota and coke from U.S. Steel’s coke batteries in nearby Clairton, Pa., into liquid iron. That iron is refined into steel and then cast into slabs that are sent to the company’s Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pa., to be rolled into flat-rolled steel used in the appliance, automotive and construction industries, according to U.S. Steel’s website.
The move comes during a period of record-high domestic steel prices, extended lead times, and extremely limited spot supplies.
By David Schollaert, David@SteelMarketUpdate.com and Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com
{loadposition reserved_message}

Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest in Steel Products

EU HR prices gain ground on US, Asian HR still well behind
Section 232 returned on March 12, and since then, the price gap between offshore and US hot band has tightened.

SMU Community Chat replay now available
The latest SMU Community Chat webinar reply is now available on our website to all members. After logging in at steelmarketupdate.com, visit the community tab and look under the “previous webinars” section of the dropdown menu. All past Community Chat webinars are also available under that selection. If you need help accessing the webinar replay, or if your company […]

SSAB announces $74M expansion in Alabama
The project will expand heat treat capacity at its Axis, Alabama plant

Service centers: Mill orders retreat in March
SMU’s Mill Order Index declined in March after repeated gains at the start of the year, according to our latest service center inventories data.

Nucor maintains plate prices
Nucor aims to keep plate prices flat with the opening of its June order book.