US Steel Big River shipments increase in Q1

Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. has reported net earnings of $199 million in the first quarter of this year, a figure $25 million higher than the prior quarter but that represents a 77.4 percent drop from net earnings of $882 million in the first quarter of last year.

The company’s operating figures for the quarter show output at its Big River Steel electric arc furnace (EAF) mill complex in Arkansas reached 659,000 tons. It marks a 3.6 percent rise in output compared with the prior quarter and a 7.15 percent hike from one year ago.

The Big River complex is prominent in remarks from U.S. Steel President and CEO David B. Burritt that accompany the earnings report.

“We’ve begun cold commissioning critical components of our new nongrain oriented electrical steel line at Big River Steel to produce the first coil as planned later this summer,” Burritt says. “Big River 2, our new minimill with even more capabilities, and our new galvanize/Galvalume line, remain on track for 2024. Together, with our current Big River Steel footprint, we are creating the next generation of sustainable minimill steelmaking in the U.S. and transforming our business model to generate more consistent cash flow to continue capability building and higher returns for our investors.”

In a breakdown of its first quarter 2023 operating segments, U.S. Steel says its Mini Mill (Big River) segment created $52 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) during the three months.

That figure is below the $244 million of EBITDA from its Tubular segment or the $140 million EBITDA figure of its Flat-Rolled segment, which includes integrated steelmaking complexes in Illinois, Indiana and Pennsylvania. The company lost $12 million in its European operations.

Regarding conditions in its Mini Mill segment, which typically relies on a combination of ferrous scrap, direct-reduced iron (DRI), hot briquetted iron (HBI) and pig iron as feedstock, U.S. Steel experienced lower metallics costs in this year’s first quarter.

On the metallics side, U.S. Steel says it is ramping up a pig iron campus that is part of its Gary, Indiana, integrated steelmaking complex. The company says it is an example of in-sourcing that will “displac[e] third-party ore-based metallics with internally sourced metallics” and “derisk [the] Mini Mill segment’s supply chain by displacing imported raw materials.”

In late February 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the global pig iron market was among those most affected by war- and sanctions-related trade pattern disruptions.