Steel Mills
September 12, 2019
CRU: Minimills Have a Big Cost Advantage, Right? Not So Fast…
Written by Tim Triplett
By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan Smith
Most people believe that minimills, which remelt scrap in electric arc furnaces, have a big cost advantage over integrated mills, which feed ore and coking coal into giant blast furnaces. But such conventional thinking is an oversimplification of the cost comparison. Based on site costs alone, and where steelmaking input prices lie in 2019, minimills actually fall in the middle of the cost curve, according to CRU’s analysis. (See related article, “CRU: U.S. Minimill Costs Drop Below Integrated Mill Costs…But for How Long?“, elsewhere in this issue.)
