JSW Ohio EAF Slowly Ramping Up

The electric arc furnace and caster at JSW Ohio are slowly producing more slabs after the re-start of the furnace back on Dec. 14, 2018. The furnace is running just about every day at this point, according to SMU sources. However, it is being limited to just a few heats. The mill’s goal is to move up to 10 heats a day in the coming days with the expectation that the mill would be producing 24,000 tons a month sometime during the first two months of operation. Looking further out into the future, the goal is for the mill to be producing 100,000 tons of hot rolled steel per month (1.2 million tons per year).

As with any piece of equipment that has been left idle for 10 years or longer, it is expected there would be issues cropping up that need to be addressed when identified. Water lines needed to be flushed early in the process of bringing the EAF and caster online as scaling had built up due to the inactivity of the equipment. A JSW customer who recently visited the mill told SMU the equipment was down the day they were there as the company was working to resolve some electrical issues.