Speaking during the company’s year-end earnings call last week, SDI president and chief executive Mark Millett said the project is proceeding well and that it remains on its US$1.9 billion budget. 

“The team's momentum is absolutely unbelievable and to be admired,” Millett told analysts. “When you tour the site, the excitement there is palpable. Construction is going well, and it's beyond exciting to know we'll be producing steel this coming summer,” he said. 

Although the first coils aren’t expected until then, Millett said the facility’s two value-added coating lines — a 550,000-ton galvanizing line and 250,000-ton paint line — are likely to start ahead of steelmaking operations, perhaps sometime in May or June. 

He said those lines will process internally manufactured substrate or substrate bought from other suppliers. 

Millett also said three SDI customers have committed to locating operations on the mill's campus, representing 1 million tons of annual processing and consumption capacity.

“We're still speaking with several other potential on-site customers as well, those that may build facilities off-site but near our campus. Our location provides a significant freight benefit to most of our intended flat-roll customers,” he said.