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The new pig caster at Gary Works is shown.
U.S. Steel’s new pig caster operation at Gary Works has sent its first shipment to the steelmaker’s Big River mini-mill in Arkansas.
The Pittsburgh-based company spent $60 million to build the pig caster, which recently started producing pig iron. It converts iron ore into pig iron that feeds the company’s new electric arc furnaces after U.S. Steel decided to diversify from its longtime role as solely a vertically integrated steelmaker.
The first barge of pig iron from Gary Works was received at Big River Steel last month.
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“If the geopolitical events of the past couple of years have taught us anything, it is that strong supply chains, secured access to raw materials and production capabilities matter. That is why U.S. Steel is creating value for stockholders by investing in internally sourced pig iron at Gary Works and expanding our capabilities to produce higher grades of pellets at our Keetac operations,” U.S. Steel President and CEO David Burritt said in a recent conference call with investors. “Our investment in up to 500,000 tons of pig iron production at our Gary Works facility was completed ahead of schedule and on budget.”
The construction was completed late last year.
“My thanks to the construction team at Gary Works for the excellent work and their focus on safety,” Burritt said. “We had zero recordable injuries in over 185,000 hours worked. Safety first was a term invented by U.S. Steel and remains our top priority.”
The new pig iron caster can make up to 500,000 tons of pig iron a year, generating 50% of the metallics needed for the steelmaker’s new Big River Steel Works. It takes advantage of the iron ore U.S. Steel already ships across Lake Michigan to the blast furnaces at its Gary Works mill.
“Steel has been and continues to be the low-cost producer of iron ore in northern Minnesota,” Burritt said. “Low-cost iron ore has historically been a competitive advantage as a key component of the supply chain for our integrated blast furnace operations. That value remains today. This advantage will grow our value creation potential as we continue to execute our differentiated metallic strategy in our transforming footprint with state-of-the-art mini-mill steelmaking.”
The Russian invasion of Ukraine drove up the price of importing pig iron. It added an additional $40 million to Big River’s operating costs in the fourth quarter, cutting into the profit margin by seven percentage points.
“Absent these cost pressures, Big River would have reported positive adjusted EBITDA for the quarter. And even with these increased raw material costs, Big River delivered positive EBITDA in December and is building on that momentum to start the first quarter,” Burritt said in the conference call with investors. “By mid-February, we expect to put these raw material challenges behind us, in part due to the in-sourcing of pig iron from Gary Works.”
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