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

Michael Cowden is editor-in-chief for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, 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.

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