Mini-mills have grown up in North America and with this have come the growing pains of supplying raw materials. Electric furnaces produced 20 percent of the steel made in the United States 20 years ago... this year, that percentage will reach 44 percent. In traditional mini-mills, electric furnaces were used primarily for the production of commodity steel... reinforcing bar, merchant bar, small structural shapes. Specialty steel companies also used electric furnaces for the production of high-value stainless, alloy, and tool steels. With the evolution of electric furnace steelmaking technology, the furnaces have grown in size and the companies that operate them diversified into virtually all steel product lines.
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