SMS chosen to equip Highbar mill

Electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking startup Highbar LLC has selected Germany-based SMS Group to supply what SMS calls an environmentally sustainable rebar minimill. The order also includes options for SMS to supply two additional minimills.

Highbar CEO Dave Stickler, before joining the startup firm, served with Arkansas-based Big River Steel, which is now part of United States Steel Corp. Stickler and Highbar announced Osceola, Arkansas—where Big River has its production capacity—as the site of the first Highbar mill late last year.

While using the SMS system, Highbar will produce rebar with a carbon footprint up to 50 percent lower compared with some other such mills, SMS says.

“SMS has been and continues to be at the forefront of advancing the world’s steel industry in terms of operating efficiency, ever increasing quality capabilities and environmental sustainability,” Stickler says. “I fully expect the SMS-supplied rebar minimill to build on the tremendous success my partners and I have had developing many of the finest scrap metal recycling and steel production facilities in the world while using SMS technology.”

The steelmaking technology firm likewise says its existing three-decade relationship with Stickler and other Highbar executives was helpful. “SMS Group appreciates the continued trust of Highbar in our innovations,” says Jens Oliver Haupt, chief sales officer at SMS. “Jointly, we stand for bringing the most profitable combination of technology and talent to create cutting edge solutions for the industry.”

Equipment at the Highbar mill will have a capacity of slightly more than 600,000 tons per year and the design eliminates the need for natural gas in the production process. An adjacent solar filed planned by Highbar will be tied directly to plant operations, “allowing for 100 percent operation with renewable energy operation,” according to the companies.

In Arkansas, equipment to be installed includes the SMS CMT (Continuous Minimill Technology), which it describes as a low-emission and energy-efficient steelmaking system that supplies liquid steel to a high-speed caster that directly feeds the rolling mill in a “single, highly reliable process.”

SMS Group also will supply an AURA DC (Advanced Unit Rectifier Assembly) direct current-powered electric-arc furnace with an All-Charge continuous feeding system and robotic systems designed to improve labor efficiency; and an SMS Concast high-speed single strand caster with an induction equalization furnace provided by SMS Elotherm.

Groundbreaking for the Arkansas project is expected to take place in the second quarter of this year with startup planned 22 months later. Highbar is engaged in site selection activities for its other two locations.