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SDI Bar Products Mill
Achieves Profitability in April

May 10, 2004 — Steel Dynamics, Inc.’s Bar Products Division in Pittsboro, Ind., achieved profitability in April, its fourth month of production.

The Pittsboro mill, which produced and shipped its first truckload in late December of 2003, has continued to ramp up production of carbon steel bars in the range of 3- to 9-inch diameters. April's profitability was achieved on shipments of 24,000 tons, a shipping rate equivalent to approximately 50% of the mill's 600,000-tons projected annual capacity.

"We are very pleased with the astonishing progress the Pittsboro team has made in the transition to profitability in such a short time frame, with yet limited capability," said Keith Busse, SDI's President and CEO. "We expected the mill could turn a profit very quickly, but to become profitable after only four months of production substantially exceeded our expectations. General Manager Glenn Pushis and the new team assembled at Pittsboro successfully began rolling and finishing operations while continuing to construct and install equipment within the same operating arena."

SDI is in the final stages of completing its $80-million investment to modify and expand the former Qualitech Steel minimill, which had been purchased for $45 million in 2002. Cold commissioning is currently underway for the versatile, eight-stand bar finishing mill, with rebar production expected to begin by the end of the second quarter. Merchant bars along with light structural shapes will be commissioned in the third quarter.

In the month of April, the mill's caster produced 7- x 7-inch billets, a new product field, in addition to 10- x 14-inch blooms, the only capability of the former mill. The mill's vacuum tank degasser, also commissioned in April, will facilitate the mill’s expansion beyond carbon grades into the higher-value-added alloy market. Steel Dynamics expects that the additional product capabilities will provide the flexibility to serve multiple steel markets and optimize profits.

Market conditions are currently very favorable for all the products the Pittsboro mill is expected to produce, as are market conditions for the flat-rolled and structural steels also produced by Steel Dynamics.

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