Gerdau Special Steel Monroe Mill
Large load · 3000 E FRONT ST, Monroe, MI
Gerdau's Monroe mill on the Lake Erie shore in Monroe, Michigan, is a special bar quality steel mini-mill that has made steel since about 1978. It runs one 140-ton electric arc furnace, a ladle metallurgy station, two vacuum tank degassers, a caster, a reheat furnace and a rolling mill, and sits next to DTE's Monroe coal plant. A $70.3 million melt shop project announced in 2018 added a new arc furnace transformer and a twin ladle furnace, raising permitted output to 900,000 tons a year. Actual output in mid-2024 was about 554,000 tons. No MW figure for the mill has been published.
Overview
In May 2018 Gerdau Special Steel North America announced a $70.3 million melt shop investment at Monroe: a new transformer for the electric arc furnace, controls and mechanical upgrades to the furnace, and a new twin-ladle furnace with material handling. Gerdau said it would raise capacity by 33%, with completion expected in 2020; EGLE notes a related stack test slipped to 2021 because of COVID-19. A larger furnace transformer raises the melt shop's peak draw, but no MVA or MW rating was published.
Profile
- Permitted 900,000 tons, running near 554,000
- Earlier modifications lifted the mill's potential output from 740,000 to 850,000 tons a year, and the 2018 permit raised it to 900,000. Michigan EGLE's September 2024 inspection found output had never come close to that: the 12-month rolling total was 553,965 tons as of July 2024. On those figures the arc furnace runs at roughly 60% of its permitted throughput, which bounds its average grid draw well below its rating.
- Beside the DTE Monroe plant
- The mill sits in an industrial area near Lake Erie, directly next to DTE's coal-fired Monroe power plant. It is one of three Gerdau Special Steel North America SBQ mills, with Jackson, Michigan and Fort Smith, Arkansas, alongside processing plants in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio.
Facility
- Activity
- Electric arc furnace mini-mill making special bar quality (SBQ) steel bars
- Industry
- Manufacturing
- Site type
- Facility
- Operating status
- Operating
Related records
Timeline
- May 9, 2018
- Gerdau announces a $70.3 million melt shop upgrade including a new EAF transformer
Gerdau Rounds Out Michigan Mill Overhaul with US$70.3M Investment - Association for Iron & Steel Technology
- Sep 18, 2024
- Michigan EGLE inspection records output of 553,965 tons on a 12-month rolling basis
www.egle.state.mi.us