Steel Mills
Another incident hits Algoma Steel mill
Written by Laura Miller
February 9, 2024
Algoma Steel Group Inc. suffered another incident at its steel mill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, this week.
In the late evening of Wednesday, Feb. 7, there was an incident at the north casthouse of its blast furnace complex, the steelmaker said in a statement on Friday.
It’s believed that slag made contact with moisture in the hot iron trough, the company said.
The unfortunate occurrence impacted 12 workers, five of whom were treated at a local hospital. They have since been released.
The incident did not impact the blast furnace recovery project, and a full return to production “remains on track.”
Recall that a structure supporting utilities piping collapsed at Algoma’s coke-making plant on Saturday, Jan. 20. BF operations were stopped at that time, and there have been some issues restarting the furnace.
Algoma provided an update on the situation with its quarterly earnings released on Tuesday, and in its earnings conference call on Wednesday. CEO Michael Garcia said the company expected to be “producing usable hot metal within the next seven days,” with a return to full production expected within the next two weeks.
“The hazards associated with working with molten metal are well known to us and we have comprehensive training and procedures to ensure the safety of our operations,” Garcia said in Friday’s statement.
“Our investigation is ongoing to fully understand what happened. Our first and primary concern is the health and safety of our employees and we are thankful for the rapid and professional response of our first responders,” he added.
Laura Miller
Read more from Laura MillerLatest in Steel Mills
Goncalves says Cliffs still has interest in USS buy
Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. would still be interested in acquiring some or all of U.S. Steel’s assets, if the proposed deal by Nippon Steel stumbles, according to an article in Bloomberg.
Algoma to conclude planned plate mill outage at month’s end
Algoma Steel Inc. expects to wrap up a previously announced outage on its plate mill by the end of this month, a company spokeswoman said. The outage is part of the Canadian flat-rolled steelmaker’s $130 million CAD ($95 million USD) modernization project. It began in mid-April.
SDI execs detail April outage at Sinton, address ‘robust’ HR-CR spread
Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) executives said the company's Sinton, Texas, sheet mill should be able to increase melt capacity after an outage earlier this month. Sinton should see "additional improvements in production" after taking "several maintenance days in April," Barry Schneider, SDI president and COO, said in a Q1 earnings conference call on Wednesday.
SSAB Americas Q1 results hit by lower plate prices, demand
Lower demand and prices for steel plate impacted SSAB Americas’ results in the first quarter, Swedish parent company SSAB said in its Q1'24 interim report.
Cliffs working on a transforming solution for Weirton mill
Cleveland-Cliffs is working on a solution for its recently idled mill in Weirton, W.Va., that will address pent-up demand for transformers, increase the need for its electrical steel, and get its workforce back to work.