Originally Posted by
RLS0812
The EPA lists 11 total smelters in the US, 5 of which are noted as "operational", and 6 are noted as "idle".
Edit: you are looking at production facilities, and not smelters. "Roller mills", rebar stock plants, and the like are not the same as steel smelters.
Edit edit: US Steel has 2 operational smelters, 8 'non-operational', and 2 'idle' .
I'm not an expert in the field, but it's my understanding that smelters process ore not scrap. Consumers of scrap would be integrated mills (blast furnace/ basic oxygen furnace type mills) and mini mills (electric arc furnace types). While I get your point that the number of steel mills in the US has reduced greatly over the past decades and that the ability to ramp up capacity is limited, there are still dozens of scrap consuming steel mills in the US.
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