Steel Mills

Nucor Gallatin DRI Conveyor Belt System Damaged by Fire

Written by Michael Cowden

February 24, 2021

Nucor is assessing damage and a timetable for repairs after a fire on a direct-reduced iron (DRI) conveyor belt system at its flat-rolled steel mill in Ghent, Ky., the company said.

“The fire was quickly extinguished by local area fire departments, and there were no injuries as a result of the fire,” a Nucor spokeswoman said.

NucorThe fire broke out on Sunday, but did not impact broader operations at the steel mill, she said.

The Kentucky mill is also known as Nucor Steel Gallatin. Gallatin’s electric-arc furnace has annual capacity of 1.45 million tons and its hot-strip mill capacity of 1.5 million tons per year, according to the Association for Iron and Steel Technology’s 2021 Directory of Iron and Steel Plants.

Nucor feeds its EAFs with scrap as well as DRI produced at its reduction plants in Louisiana and Trinidad and Tobago.

By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Michael Cowden

Michael Cowden is managing editor for Steel Market Update. Cowden has covered the steel industry since 2007. He specializes in flat-rolled steel but has also reported on steel long products, steel pipe and tube, and aluminum. Before joining SMU, Cowden held reporting jobs at Fastmarkets AMM in Chicago, the Associated Press in Pittsburgh, and the Cambodia Daily in Phnom Penh. He has also worked as a copy editor and in marketing at the University of Chicago Press. Cowden has a BA in English from the University of Chicago and an MSJ journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. Contact him at michael@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7872.

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