Steel Mills

NLMK USA Expects 7-10 Day Unplanned Outage at Farrell HSM

May 11, 2021

NLMK USA is taking an unplanned seven- to 10-day outage on the hot-strip mill at its facility in Farrell, Pa., a company executive said.

The repairs are necessary because a motor failed on the reversing roughing mill, NLMK USA Executive Vice President James Banker told Steel Market Update on Tuesday, May 11.

NLMK The company will therefore pull forward planned maintenance on the hot-strip mill that had been scheduled for June. The repairs will result in hot-rolled coil orders being delayed by approximately two weeks, he said.

“We’ll be caught up by June. And we’ll be prioritizing orders that are affected by this outage,” Banker said.

Shipments of downstream pickled-and-oiled (P&O), cold-rolled and coated products should not be impacted because those lines already had work-in-process inventory on hand, he said.

While the June outage on the hot-strip mill has been pulled forward, planned outages on downstream operations remain scheduled for July, Banker said.

The Farrell mill, like NLMK’s electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel mill in Portage, Ind., typically takes one week of downtime for major planned maintenance every six months, he noted.

Also known as NLMK Pennsylvania, the Farrell mill is the company’s largest plant in the U.S. Farrell’s hot-strip mill has annual capacity of 1.8 million tons, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology’s 2021 Directory of Iron and Steel plants. NLMK USA sells hot-rolled coil, hot-rolled P&O, cold-rolled coil, and galvanized products to service centers as well as a range of end-use markets, including HVAC, appliance, and pipe and tube.

NLMK’s Sharon Coating facility, located in nearby Sharon, Pa., makes galvanized and galvannealed products.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He has since 2014 specialized in flat-rolled steel but has previously reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube as well as aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago - where he was involved in launching AMM's daily hot-rolled coil index, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.