Shirtofgreen wrote:So we're seeing a new plant in toledo, a pig iron furnace in lorain being fed from Indiana, and now a pig iron furnace in ashtabula?
That's pretty cool
Is the Lorain plant running? Because the plant in Reynolds, IN, as far as I know, is out of business.
That explains it. They made huge fan fare and started putting out job lessons, then I never saw anything else about it.
As far as I can tell by Google searches, the plan to reopen one or two blast furnaces at Republic Steel in Lorain to make pig iron never got off the ground. The idea was a joint venture between Republic in Lorain and ERP Iron Ore who had mines in Minnesota and the pellet plant in Reynolds Indiana. But ERP Iron Ore went bankrupt in the spring of 2018, and their assets were auctioned off last October.
A Mexican steel producer, Altos Hornos de Mexico, purchased the pellet plant for $15 million. It cost $350 million to build. They apparently plan to disassemble it and move it to Mexico piece by piece according to this recent headline. (you have to subscribe to read the story)
Shirtofgreen wrote:So we're seeing a new plant in toledo, a pig iron furnace in lorain being fed from Indiana, and now a pig iron furnace in ashtabula?
That's pretty cool
Is the Lorain plant running? Because the plant in Reynolds, IN, as far as I know, is out of business.
Guest wrote:The pig iron plant will be owned by a South African company. Frankly I'm surprised that anyone would build a pig iron plant in the US, considering the ones that were closed in the late 1970s.
Not surprising considering how cheap Natural Gas is in the USA. VoestAlpine has a DRI plant in Texas that uses Iron Ore from South America turns it into Pig Iron in Texas and then ships the Iron to its Steel Mills in Austria.
Guest wrote:The pig iron plant will be owned by a South African company. Frankly I'm surprised that anyone would build a pig iron plant in the US, considering the ones that were closed in the late 1970s.
I'm guessing that the new attitude in Washington regarding the iron/steel industry might have played a part. The abolishing of some past administrations burdensome EPA regulations, new trade agreements that give the US steel/iron industry a fairer marketplace and some of the business tax incentives that have been put in place make for a better environment.
Guest wrote:Yes, the pig iron plant will receive iron ore shipments by ship, but it won't be huge amounts; the plant will have an output of 450,000 tons of pig iron per year.
If they make the iron from regular pellets then about 750,000 tons would be needed for that output.
The pig iron plant will be owned by a South African company. Frankly I'm surprised that anyone would build a pig iron plant in the US, considering the ones that were closed in the late 1970s.
Yes, the pig iron plant will receive iron ore shipments by ship, but it won't be huge amounts; the plant will have an output of 450,000 tons of pig iron per year.