By Rye Druzin

January 18, 2021 - Integrated steelmaker US Steel has completed the purchase of electric arc furnace (EAF) minimill steelmaker Big River Steel.

The acquisition of the Osceola, Arkansas, minimill comes just over a month after US Steel announced its intent to spend another $774mn to buy the remaining 50.1pc stake in Big River Steel. US Steel paid $700mn for a 49.9pc stake in Big River in October 2019.

Big River Steel recently completed a 1.65mn short ton (st)/yr expansion, doubling its flat-rolled capacity. The company had also been mulling building a new mill in Brownsville, Texas, on the US border with Mexico.

The purchase makes Big River Steel the first flat-rolled EAF mill for US Steel. The company recently commissioned its first EAF at its tubular works in Fairfield, Alabama, which will create rounds for seamless pipe products.

The acquisition is the latest in a string of acquisitions by US-based integrated steelmakers. Cleveland-Cliffs, which began 2020 as an iron ore miner, bought steelmaker AK Steel in early 2020 before moving on to buy the majority of the steelmaking assets of ArcelorMittal USA in December.

ArcelorMittal, which maintains steelmaking assets in Canada, Mexico and the US, is building a 1.5mn metric ton (t)/yr (1.65mn st/yr) EAF at its rerolling mill in Calvert, Alabama, which currently relies on imported slabs for its production.