During a visit to Keystone Steel & Wire on Wednesday, Gupta met with workers and local officials at the Illinois plant and said that the company is weighing moves to lift annual companywide production by as much as 800,000 tons.   

He said that at Keystone Steel, the company is considering proposals that would take liquid steel production from 800,000 tons to 1.1 million tons and is considering building a combined-cycle, gas-fed power plant at the site. 

Meanwhile, the company is looking at restarting the second EAF at its plant in Georgetown, S.C., giving it an additional 500,000 tons of capacity. 

“There is a growing desire to buy American-made rather than imported steel, and we are very well placed with excellent skills and resources to serve that rising demand,” Gupta said. “The USA is the largest exporter of scrap and the largest importer of steel in the world, so clearly there is an opportunity to produce more steel in the U.S. for the local market from domestic scrap, and we intend to seize this opportunity.”

GFG acquired Keystone Steel & Wire through its US$320 million acquisition of Keystone Consolidated Industries. That deal closed at the beginning of this month, and GFG is in the process of combining that operation with its Georgetown plant. 

The combined business is called Liberty Steel USA. Between the two steel mills, Liberty Steel currently has 1.8 million tons of melt capacity and 1.5 million tons of wire rod rolling capacity. 

Gupta said he wants to make Liberty Steel USA the country’s largest producer of wire rod within the next year. He also has said he intends to take the business public. 

Chris Armstrong, chief executive of Keystone Consolidated, said that becoming part of the GFG Alliance would benefit customers and help preserve jobs. 

“Many loyal customers of our downstream products in the U.S. have long asked for our support abroad, so we can now help them take our market-leading U.S. products to their customers worldwide,” he said. 

“Also, as part of GFG, we can potentially service customers from many more rod and wire mills, giving them assurance of supply in all circumstances. This improved customer offering, combined with a wider pool of knowledge and stronger operational support, will make our U.S. mills more resilient and protect American jobs for the future.”