Get your motor runnin’

IF ever AISTech’s Town Hall Forum finds its way on to a pub quiz, one question would have to be who came up with the idea? The answer would be George Konig, currently a steel sector consultant working for Hatch Associates Consultants and formerly of Berry Metals.

George informed the audience in Detroit that the Forum was now 21 years old. It was formed, he said, when the industry was going through a difficult time.

The format is simple: a handful of industry leaders chatting informally on a raised stage; it’s a friendly, unscripted interaction and the whole thing, as always, is moderated by Jon Delano, money and politics editor for KDKA-TV, part of the CBS network. This year’s Forum was Jon’s 14th as host.

Key issues

Ron Ashburn told the audience that the Forum’s mission was, as always, to tackle the key issues and disseminate ideas. He said that the steel industry should insist on continuous improvement, reduce energy consumption, build reliable supply chains and do the right things all the time. “We need to be accountable to all in the value chain,” he said, adding that ‘it takes great people to build great companies that go on to do great things’.

This year’s Town Hall panel consisted of Traci L Forrester, executive vice president, environmental and sustainability at Cleveland Cliffs Inc; Richard L Fruehauf, senior vice president – chief strategy and sustainability officer, US Steel; Barry T Schneider, president and chief operating officer, Steel Dynamics Inc; Sushma Walker, president, Nucor Business Technology, Nucor Corporation; and Michael Williams, president and chief executive officer of TimkenSteel Corporation.

The Town Hall Forum always starts the same way…or certainly since Jon Delano took over.

“Good morning everybody!” exclaims Jon, and there are murmurs from the floor.

“You can do better, Good morning, everybody!” There’s a louder good morning and proceedings then begin. “Good morning, good morning, welcome to Detroit! Twenty one years old! This brainchild of George Konig has now come of age!”

Get your motor

runnin’

Do Town Hall Forums have themes, I wondered? Clearly they do as this year it was entitled STEEL 23 – Get Your Motor Running, the latter part being a reference to with electric steelmaking. Steel is part of the solution, and we must start communicating how steel is part of the future.”

Steppenwolf’s hit Born to be Wild from the movie Easy Rider and, of course, the fact that we were in Detroit, the Motor City.

Delano then acknowledged the fact that this year there were two women on the panel. “It’s about time!” he exclaimed and then added, “This is not your grandfather’s steel industry,” taking me back to last year’s Town Hall when US Steel’s head honcho David Burritt said virtually the same thing, something like ‘This ain’t your grand pappy’s steel industry’– spawning, if I say so myself, a great headline in last year’s July/ August edition of Steel Times International.

Another staple of Town Hall Forums is asking the panelists for just one word to describe the state of the steel industry today. Delano didn’t disappoint. Barry Schneider said ‘courageous’, Traci Forrester went with ‘misunderstood’, Michael Williams offered ‘futuristic’, Sushma Walker suggested ‘evolving’, and Richard Fruehauf said ‘changing’. But Delano wasn’t going to leave it at that, oh no, he wanted to know why they chose those words.

Barry Schneider qualified his remark –‘courageous’ – by saying it’s all about doing the hard things, it’s all about safety too and being confident that the team is safe, ‘all the way up to making good business decisions’.

AISTech’s Town Hall Forum has proved itself time and time again over the years to be a top-notch debate on issues of importance to the US and global steel industry. The 2023 event was no exception. With five top steel industry executives on stage, including two women – from Nucor Corporation and Cleveland Cliffs – the stage was set for another scintillating discussion. Matthew Moggridge* was there.

Sushma talked of global overcapacity and the need to be much more sustainable. “We can only control what’s happening here in the USA,” she said. Barry argued that ‘we must be diligent with our trade laws’, adding that the US leads the world with incredible technology and shouldn’t let bad things into the country. “We can’t be a target,” he said. Michael said he agreed with the other panelists but added that global instability keeps him awake at night. “There’s a lot going on, stuff we don’t know about, and we must communicate how cool steel is and go out there [meaning to the exhibition hall] and see the 600 vendors to check out the technology on offer.”

COVID recovery

Traci Forrester felt she had to qualify her word – ‘misunderstood’ – by saying “I don’t mean the folks here [at the Town Hall] are misunderstood.” She didn’t want the audience to misunderstand her! She didn’t want to escape through a trap door as a baying mob of steelmakers invaded the stage. No, she meant that when she discusses the great strides the steel industry has taken to be ‘clean’ she feels that the wider world appears to ‘misunderstand’ her as the general view, perhaps, has always been that steelmaking is a dirty and dangerous business full of polluting and billowing smokestacks.

As for Michael Williams, his word –‘futuristic’ – related to the steel industry’s use of high tech for its various processes. “This industry has innovative tech for processes, but if you look at the challenges facing us, there needs to be rapid innovation to establish goals. The future is bright and technology will lead the way for us,” he said.

Sushma Walker’s word – ‘evolving’ –related to how the steel industry has always evolved, she said. “We need to make sure that our teams are ready for how we’ll make steel in the future.” She said that the steel industry needs to be a solutions provider. “Steel is the foundation of everything we’re doing,” she added.

For Richard Fruehauf, ‘changing’ related to the pace of change within the steel industry. “I’m not a lifer in steel, I’ve been here almost nine years, and the changes are rapid and accelerating and huge,” he said.

Barry said that the word ‘changing’ is interesting, adding that SDI’s sustainable footprint is so low that ‘we have automotive people reaching out to us for solutions’.

Michael Williams said that the steel industry needs to figure out how to make itself cool again and stressed a need to recruit and retain talent.

Sleepless nights?

Jon Delano asked the panel what keeps them up at night, prompting Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci Forrester to comment: “I don’t think there is one existential threat to the steel industry. It’s a material of choice, steel is needed and we’re in a good place.” Presumably, then, she sleeps like a log.

US Steel’s Richard Fruehauf said that the existential threat was climate change and that the steel industry remains a major creator of greenhouse gas emissions, a problem which is much reduced if EAFs are used in place of blast furnaces. “It’s all about public perception,” he argued. “We hear it when we talk to investors. We don’t see more recruitment, we’re old and dirty. We need to admit that, yes, BOF steelmaking leads to high emissions, less so

Jon Delano asked whether the industry had fully recovered from COVID. Michael Williams said the industry was still in recovery and that there were still sporadic fluctuations in the supply chains and the re-sourcing of micro alloys because of the Russian situation.

Richard Fruehauf said that COVID supply chains were largely resolved. While there was still a problem with the Ukraine/Russia pig iron supply situation, it was boom time for the North American market. He argued that the period 2022 to 2030 will be ‘the steel market of a lifetime’ for the United States and said that the emphasis with customers was on supply chain security. He spoke of the decoupling of the global trading system and new USMCA rules which, he said, would have a huge impact on the automotive sector.

Traci Forrester said that Cleveland Cliffs was vertically integrated and that through COVID the company became a steel company. “I do see a future where we’re reshoring manufacturing, bringing it back to the forefront of conversations, filling the talent void and generating more prime scrap in this country,” she said.

Barry Schneider said that Mexico presented a great growth opportunity. “It’s important for us to be with our customers in Mexico,” he said, adding that with high tech manufacturing these were exciting times.

Sushma praised the flexibility of the steel industry and its ability to adapt. “I love the current optimism,” she said.

Global instability

Jon Delano liked the optimism and threw in a curve ball: global instability. He said that an increase in steel demand was driven by the situation in Ukraine and added that, at some stage, Ukraine will have to rebuild. Barry Schneider said that the pig iron situation was a problem and that SDI quickly sourced a lot of materials. “I don’t want to be cold to the human lives lost in Ukraine, but the world market has been a little uneasy,” he said.

Richard Fruehauf said that US Steel has a steel mill in Eastern Slovakia, 60 miles from the Ukrainian border. While Russia’s unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation affected the mill, things have since stabilised. “We have lower-priced electricity than elsewhere in the world,” he said, adding that the company’s facility in Gary, Indiana, has been making 500kt of pig iron. He added that independence of supply would be a future benefit.

Asked whether China still presented a problem, SDI’s Barry Schneider said ‘absolutely’. “I’m not sure about the latest estimates, but [Chinese production] is around one billion tonnes/year. He stressed the importance of educating consumers about the perils of cheap steel.

Traci said that Cleveland Cliffs was big on electric steels, which are a very profitable part of the business, so why let it continue overseas? “We need to produce the electrical steels here [in the USA] and we’re doing that, we’re taking action now,” she said.

Jon Delano said that President Joe Biden maintained tariffs on imported steel and asked the panel what it thought of the current administration. Richard Fruehauf said the move was positive and that Biden deserved a round of applause. “I think I’m optimistic,” he said, citing the bi-partisan agreement and his own assertion that a boom time lay ahead. Barry Schneider was glad that Section 232 was kept in place. Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci Forrester said the current administration had been good. “They want to support steel,” she said. Nucor’s Sushma said that trade laws must evolve, and that the industry needs to pay attention to what those laws are.

AMC 65. But who had the coolest wheels? I guess we’ll never know.

There was a brief chat about electric vehicles. S&P predicts that 40% of all car sales by 2030 will be for EVs and what’s more, the aforementioned Infrastructure Bill is pumping billions into charging stations.

As the largest producer of flat-rolled steel in USA, Cleveland Cliffs counts the automotive industry as a big customer. Traci Forrester said, “Our steel is poised to serve, we’re working on developing high quality steels and anticipate growing demand whilst meeting current demand.”

What are you driving?

Things went a little off piste when Delano asked the panelists about their first car.

Richard Fruehauf mentioned his old 1978 Ford Bronco. “It was pretty beat up, that’s why I was allowed to drive it,” he said. Sushma recalled her Chevrolet Malibu but said nothing about it, while Barry Schneider talked lovingly of his 1966 Buick Skylark. “I spent more time under it,” he said. As for Traci Forrester, she couldn’t remember the make, but said she had a wood-panelled station wagon. Mike Williams drove an S10 pick-up. As for Jon Delano, he had an

Richard Fruehauf said that US Steel was bullish on automotive, but the whole issue of charging stations might slow things down a little. SDI’s Barry Schneider commented: “We’re spending a lot of time on the automotive industry, we do a lot of recycling and getting metal out of the batteries is hard.” Michael Williams said that Timken was heavily invested in the engines of yesterday but also pursuing the EV platform through its machine components division. “From our perspective, we’re happy, very positive, but we don’t believe it will go as fast as predicted and that hybrids will be more prominent,” he said.

Sustainability

“We spend a lot of time talking about decarbonization,” said Jon Delano. “Sustainability is an important topic, but how is your company leveraging renewables and how is it a growth market for you company?”

Traci Forrester said that Cleveland Cliffs was proud of its groundbreaking project at the company’s Middletown works in Ohio. The company recently completed a hydrogen injection trial at the plant, which it described online as ‘a significant step toward the future decarbonization of blast furnaces, which are necessary for the continued service of the most qualityintensive steel applications, particularly for the automotive industry.’ She said it would be impossible to eradicate the use of coke, but the company is trying to reduce it. “You can’t run a steel mill on renewables,” she said.

Barry Schneider said he was big fan of nuclear power, and that SDI has a strong nuclear portfolio and was taking it to the next level. Nucor’s Sushma Walker said that Nucor had invested $15 million in NuScale Power, a developer of small modular (SMR) nuclear plants, reinforcing a message released by the steelmaker around a month earlier when the company stated that the North American steel giant had entered into an agreement to fund NuScale via a private placement in the Special Purpose Acquisition Company, Spring Valley Acquisition Corporation, that intends to merge with NuScale. At that time, Nucor president and CEO Leo Topalian commented: “Sustainability is driving the business decisions of leading companies around the world. As America’s largest steel producer and a significant energy consumer, we are looking for safe and reliable sources of power generation that are consistent with our sustainability goals.” Sushma Walker said: “We believe it’ll be a game changer and are committed to it globally.”

US Steel’s Richard Freuhauf said that investors want further decarbonization of the industry and added that US Steel was ‘extremely pro-nuclear’. He said that the company was seeing increased demand from solar and wind customers and that it was impossible to downplay the importance of nuclear power and renewables generally.

TimkenSteel Corp’s Michael Williams commented: “We’re located in northeast Ohio and on that grid only 5% is renewable. We’re not scared of nuclear, it should be part of the energy portfolio”.

Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci L Forrester said the company was a strong believer in nuclear power and where renewable energy was concerned has set itself a target to purchase 2MWh of renewable energy annually that is newly developed or additional to the grid. According to the company’s website, ‘Cleveland Cliffs has recently executed a 15year power purchase agreement with EDP

Renewables SA for 180MW of the 200MW Headwaters lll Wind Farm in Randolph County, Indiana.’ The wind farm will be operational in 2025 and has the capability to power the equivalent of more than 54,000 homes.

Do we need CBAMs?

“As American steel becomes cleaner and greener,” said Jon Delano, “the question is how do we reward those companies that have reduced their carbon footprint?” With a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) introduced last year, Delano wanted to know whether it was necessary.

Richard Freuhauf of US Steel commented: “We have a facility in Europe so we’re familiar with CBAM,” explaining how it was a carbon tax and that US Steel is taxed on its emissions. Nucor’s Sushma Walker said that CBAM is needed. “If there is regulation, we need border adjustment in place,” she said.

Steel Dynamics Inc’s Barry Schneider said the process itself should be straightforward. “I do believe we have to watch our borders and make sure products don’t sneak in. We need some kind of security.” Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci Forrester said that her company doesn’t need a marketing label for its steel. “All our steels are driving emissions down and we will continue on that journey,” she said.

TimkenSteel’s Michael Williams said that CBAM was a complex issue and that it can’t just relate to steel, but anything with steel content. “Let us compete in the green steel space,” he said.

Plant safety

Safety is one of the old chestnuts at the

AISTech Town Hall Forum and it goes without saying that all those steel company representatives on stage were keen to stress that they were on top of their game when it came to safety issues. As Nucor’s Sushma Walker pointed out, the key is culture. Safety, she said, must be a core value. “We show up daily and do it,” she said. “It’s living the culture, not just words. The team shows up daily to take care of themselves and others.”

At US Steel it was a similar story. Richard Fruehauf also used the word ‘culture’ stating that industry leaders must make it a top priority. “We coined the phrase ‘safety first’ in 1908,” he said, adding that the company has weekly chats on safety performance and regular campaigns to keep it top-of-mind.

SDI’s Barry Schneider also came down on the side of ‘culture’, saying that he asked supervisors to step back from production and take control of safety as it was all about teaching and educating all the time. On the use of technology he said that lots of tools were available, adding that the industry has to be aware of the technology available but acknowledge that it’s not going to be perfect all the time. The question is ‘how do we ensure these things are safe?’

Michael Williams was upfront and acknowledged that TimkenSteel suffered a fatality last year and was in the process of modernizing its safety programme as a result, with a heavy emphasis on training and reducing the man/machine interface. The company has engaged in AI projects and used camera technology as well as monitoring processes collecting hundreds of thousands of data points. In other words, action is being taken. He said that the company was investing 20% of its capex budget on safety with the aim of driving a safer working environment.

Traci Forrester said that Cleveland Cliffs had gone back to basics and capped shifts at 12 hours and has added 7,000 employees. She also said that artificial intelligence was a good tool to assess ergonomics, but added that the human brain was good too. In addition to AI, she explained how employees have wearable devices that prevent heat exhaustion, and the company uses ‘a lot more robots’. All Cleveland Cliffs control rooms are digital and all-round things are ‘smarter’.

Workplace issues

Another big subject for the AISTech Town Hall Forum is the workplace and with that in mind, Jon Delano kicked off with the subject of women in steel, briefly mentioning (again) that there were two women sitting on the panel. “This is a changing industry,” he said. “It’s no longer a place for older males,” he added, which I’d imagine caused a large percentage of the audience to bristle and shift uncomfortably in their seats. “Making steel today requires different skills, and companies like Microsoft and Google are laying off high tech workers – there is a place for them in the steel industry,” he said, prompting Nucor’s Sushma Walker to express her excitement about the workforce topic. “We’ve got so much going on,” she said, and went on to discuss – or at least mention – the words ‘sustainability’ and ‘tech’, adding AI and machine learning. She referenced the 400-plus papers being presented at AISTech 2023 and said that ‘we have to keep evolving’. “It’s a great time to be a part of the steel industry and it’s a place for women,” she added, explaining that she had an IT background. “Come and join us, it’s some of the coolest work you’re going to do,” she concluded.

Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci Forrester told the audience how the company partners with the unions and how there’s plenty of room for college-educated engineers. The total median income across the company, said Forrester, was around $132,000 per annum. “We should be able to give the brightest and the best challenging and meaningful work,” she said.

US Steel’s Richard Fruehauf spoke of the need to increase inclusivity and spoke of ‘infinity groups’ looking at what’s working and what isn’t. “Younger employees are looking for purpose in their work,” he said, adding that it’s also important to have a pay cheque, although why he said that and in what context I can’t recall. Either way, he’s right, who works for nothing?

Delano said that mentorship was always important and Steel Dynamics’ Barry Schneider agreed stating that it goes on today, ‘engineers interacting on the floor with our people is very important’. He said that mentorships involved being exposed to leadership, adding that the industry needs leaders to come in and challenge the status quo. “That’s a hard thing to do remotely,” he added. “Teamwork is essential, engaging each other, it’s important in every aspect of our lives.”

The Town Hall was nearing an end, and it was a strange moment. Or at least it was for me; having been in Detroit for the best part of a week, wandering the exhibition hall, talking to representatives of the US steel industry, having lunch at Frank’s Deli – the gem of the trip – wandering around later in the day on the Canadian side of the Detroit River. I grew accustomed to it all and didn’t really want it to end, mainly because there was a long flight back to the dreary United Kingdom. But there was still one topic obscuring the view of the final straight and that was what the steel industry might look like in 25 years’ time. “Share with us: what will the industry look like in 2050,” asked Delano.

Steel Dynamics’ Barry Schneider said ‘small plants taking advantage of local resources and mills going where the power is’. US Steel’s Richard Fruehauf added, “We’ll be net zero, cleaner and greener, there will be more technology, the opportunities for automation will be incredible and computer scientists (like Michael Williams) will be running the mills. Cleveland Cliffs’ Traci Forrester said that the company will still be going strong. “You’ll no longer hear about smokestacks, there will be recycling partnerships and we will be a clean steel manufacturer,” she said. Michael Williams was short and to the point: “Steelmaking will be really cool,” he said, and let’s face it, he has a point.

TimkenSteel Corp’s Michael Williams added: “You have to have a competitive benefit, we show them the technology at our facilities, it’s not just sledgehammers and shovels, there’s lots of technology. We show them we’re an engineer-oriented business operating based on science,” he continued, explaining how the company recently changed its approach and its internship programme. “We got 40 interns coming in this week, we’re going to the high schools, we’ve reimplemented our apprentice programme as we can’t find people off the street anymore. “Our board is made up of 27% women,” said Williams, adding that 37% of the company’s salaried workforce are women. “So, we have a focus on a very diverse work environment and value everybody’s opinion. Williams has a background as a computer scientist, proving that it takes all sorts.

And that was it, time to file out of the hall, find somewhere to have lunch and appraise the week gone by, time to revisit the exhibition hall for the last time, check out the free chocolates and other freebies –tee-shirts, baseball caps, pens, torches, and socks – socks? Yes, socks, two pairs! Unbeknown to AIST exhibitors who were giving stuff away, I will be carrying the flame for them as I ride my pushbike through the summer months, providing them with free advertising in the UK.

It was a good event, it always is. There were people I look forward to meeting, like AIST’s Sam Kusic and Ron Ashburn, and Philip Bell of the SMA to name but three.

It’s good to see that the American steel industry is flying high on a swelling tide of optimism as it faces the future head on and deals with the challenges of decarbonization and digitalization, not to mention threats posed by current geopolitical strife.

Next year, AISTech 2024 will be in Columbus, Ohio. Hope to see you there. �