SDI Sinton Hot Mill Down for Next 2-4 Weeks

The company said in a release on Friday, July 7, that the outage, which was unplanned, resulted from “caster shear equipment issues” that occurred on July 1.

Expenses to repair the problem should be less than $1 million, SDI said.

The Sinton mill will continue to operate its cold mill and coating lines during the hot mill outage, the company said.

All lead times for Sinton were listed as “closed” or “inquire” in a lead time sheet released from SDI on Friday.

The facility has grappled with production issues for some time.

SDI announced the Sinton mill in July 2019 and had initially hoped that it would begin operations by mid-2021. But the startup of the hot end was delayed for various reasons, including severe flooding.

Company executives said in a first-quarter earnings call in January of this year that supply chain issues, notably for bearings and rolls, continued to limit production at Sinton. But in SDI’s second-quarter earnings call, in April, executives said those problems had been resolved and that the mill could reach full-year capacity utilization of approximately 80%.

By Becca Moczygemba, becca@steelmarketupdate.com