These billets are, in turn, transfered to the rolling mill, reheated to 2,000 degrees and then reduced in diameter and shaped into finished products. Steel from appliances is an excellent source of scrap with a consistent grade of high-quality steel for consumption. The mill has a capacity to produce 600,000 tons of new steel each year, and because Sheffield uses two EAFs, which consume virtually 100 percent steel scrap to produce new steel, that's potentially 600,000 tons of steel appliance and other scrap consumed to make new steel. Sheffield uses steel scrap from a variety of sources, including home scrap from its own steelmaking process. Another source of high-quality scrap used by Sheffield is prompt scrap from appliance and other manufacturers.
Prompt scrap is the steel left over from the manufacturing process.
Appliance and other steel scrap collected through municipal recycling programs is a good source of scrap that can be melted into new steel products such as the steel rebar used to build our nation's highways. This growing demand for steel scrap has permitted us to divert a valuable resource from the solid waste stream, and consume a reusable resource in the production of new steel.