Steel Mills
SDI Columbus Takes Unplanned Hot Mill Outage, Pulls Forward Planned One
Written by Michael Cowden
October 5, 2023
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has lost some production this month at its sheet mill in Columbus, Miss., on a combination of planned and unplanned outages, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The Fort Wayne, Ind.-based steelmaker temporarily stopped running one of the two electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) at Columbus because of a minor fire in the vicinity of a transformer switch, the sources said. There were no injuries.
That fire happened on Friday, Sept. 29, and resulted in a one-week unplanned outage on one of two furnaces. Despite the unplanned outage, SDI was able to run the Columbus hot end at 60-70% capacity because the second EAF continued to operate normally.
The company also expects to use production from its sheet mill in Sinton, Texas, to help minimize the impact on customers of the unplanned outage at Columbus.
SDI in addition plans to pull forward into October a one-week planned outage on the Columbus hot end that had initially been scheduled for November. That planned outage will begin next week.
The combination of outages at SDI and at other mills appears to have stretched out lead times. SDI noted in a lead time sheet dated Thursday that lead times for most products at most of its sheet mills were “closed.”
Michael Cowden
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