JSW USA plans to idle the electric-arc furnace (EAF) at its flat-rolled steel plant in Jefferson County, Ohio because of a demand slump and need for modernization.
According to media reports, JSW plans on utilizing the downtime to upgrade its machinery. The company will replace the existing EAF with a new one supplied by Tenova Consteel with the same capacity of 1.5mn mt annually, though it did not give direction on when the upgrades would be completed.
The plant was closed for two months from April through June 16 this year due to the shrinking demand caused by the pandemic. The company noted that the market is recovering at a noticeably slow pace with the second wave of COVID-19 infections in many countries.
JSW USA’s chief executive officer, John Hritz indicated that the company will shut the plant by the end of August and complete the replacement, which was initially slated for 2021.