Consumers of Scrap

In the United States approximately 100 steel mill plants and 600-700 ferrous foundries buy prepared scrap iron and steel, re-melt it, and transform it into new products. They “consume” the scrap. In the year 2003, steel mills and foundries in the USA consumed (melted) nearly 57 million net tons of purchased scrap and 7 million tons of merchant scrap substitutes, about 7% less than the record year 2000. Ferrous scrap is the primary raw material for the production of the more than half of the steel made in the U.S. by modern electric furnaces and provides a significant portion of the metallic units for integrated steelmakers who base their production on virgin iron ore.