Steel Dynamics acquires Kentucky Electric Steel assets

Steel producer and metals recycler Steel Dynamics Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., has acquired substantially all the assets of Kentucky Electric Steel, a wholly owned subsidiary of Specialty Steel Works Inc. The acquired assets, located outside of Ashland, Ky., include a rolling mill with an annual capacity of 250,000 tons.

The operations were closed earlier this year by the prior owner, and Steel Dynamics plans to reopen the rolling mill in November 2018. The facility will be operated as part of Steel Dynamics' Steel of West Virginia (SWVA) operations, which is located within 20 miles of Ashland. The acquisition will provide product diversification for SWVA through the addition of flats and specialty alloy bars.

"KES has been a loyal customer of our SWVA and Roanoke Bar divisions," stated Glenn Pushis, senior vice president, long products steel group. "We currently anticipate that roughly 100,000 to 150,000 tons of billets will be shipped each year from our long products steel mills to be further processed at Ashland, providing additional value-added capability and higher through-cycle utilization for our steel mills."