Liberty Steel Resumes Steel Rod Production in South Carolina

Liberty Steel resumed production on January 18 at a previously idle steel plant in Georgetown, South Carolina, a company spokesman told S&P Global Platts.

The Georgetown plant was idle in April 2020 amid deteriorating market conditions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

In December, Liberty announced for the first time its plans to restart idle capacity in response to strong and resilient market conditions supported by expected government spending on infrastructure and the imposition of US steel import quotas from the EU starting in 2022.

At the time of the relaunch announcement, the British steelmaker said the Georgetown plant would receive billets from its Peoria, Illinois, long-roll mill to be converted into 10,000 sti/month of finished wire rod.

Operations at the Liberty plant in Peoria were halted in early December due to the shutdown of transformer units feeding the plant's smelter.

A spokesman for Liberty on January 18 declined to comment on any news of Peoria's activities. The metallurgical plant with a capacity of 700,000 tons of steel per year produces blanks, fittings, wire rod, industrial wire and agricultural fences.