US steel producer Nucor has idled its direct-reduced iron (DRI) facility in Louisiana, Kallanish reports. 

The 2.5 million short ton/year facility joins the company’s 2m st facility in Trinidad as a temporary casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“With the state of Louisiana having been particularly hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak and economic uncertainty nationwide, we have temporarily suspended operations at our Nucor Louisiana direct reduced iron plant,” according to a company representative. “Our steel mills that use DRI as feedstock continue to operate and are utilising existing DRI inventory. We do not expect this outage to impact our steelmaking operations and we have not laid off any teammates. With the exception of a small maintenance crew on site, we have sent all teammates home as a precautionary measure to ensure their health and wellness.”

Nucor’s announcement is concurrent with similar raw material reductions throughout the industry, including a scaling back of iron ore production at Cleveland-Cliffs and a mine idling in Pennsylvania by Consol (see related stories).