SDI acquires Kentucky Electric Steel assets

Fort Wayne, Indiana-based Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI) has announced the completion of its acquisition of what it calls “substantially all of the assets of” Kentucky Electric Steel (KES). Electric arc furnace steelmaker SDI says it has paid $5 million for the rolling mill formerly owned by Specialty Steel Works Inc.

The acquired assets are located near Ashland, Kentucky and include the rolling mill with an annual capacity of 250,000 tons.  The operations were closed earlier in 2018 by the prior owner, and SDI says it 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 in Huntington, West Virginia, about 20 miles from Ashland.

SDI says the acquisition will provide product diversification for SWVA through the addition of flats and specialty alloy bars to its product line.   

“KES has been a loyal customer of our SWVA and Roanoke Bar divisions,” says Glenn Pushis, senior vice president of SDI’s Long Products Steel Group. “We believe that the complementary product offerings will provide value to our customers. 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.”