Profile
The Steel Manufacturing Business is one of three vertically integrated business units that make up Schnitzer Steel Industries, Inc. Operating as Cascade Steel Rolling Mills, we produce a wide range of products at our state-of-the-art mini-mill such as reinforcing bar (rebar), coiled reinforcing bar, wire rod, merchant bar and other specialty products.
As part of Schnitzer Steel’s vertical integration, we purchase all of the processed scrap metal we use to produce new steel products through the Metals Recycling Business. In fact, we believe our mini-mill is the only one in the Western U.S. that can obtain all its recycled metal from its own affiliated metal recycling operations.
We sell to customers primarily located in the 10 western states from our mill in McMinnville, OR (near Portland) and a distribution center in El Monte, CA (near Los Angeles). Our mill has direct access to rail service and close proximity to major highways and deep draft marine terminals in Portland for cost-effective transportation. Typical customers are steel service centers, steel fabricators, wire drawers and major farm and wood product suppliers.
We pride ourselves in the quality of our products, our competitive pricing and our exceptional customer service. In fact, in recent customer satisfaction surveys, we had the distinction of being the top-ranked mini-mill in the Western U.S.
Our steel manufacturing process begins in the melt shop with the melting of scrap metal in our electric arc furnace (EAF). The molten steel is then tested and refined in our ladle refining furnace into the precise quality of steel needed. Our melt shop’s enhanced steel chemistry refining capabilities allow us to produce special alloy grades of steel not currently produced by other mills on the West Coast. Finally, molten steel is casted into long bars called billets in our five-strand continuous billet caster. These billets are the raw material of the rolling mill portion of the process that follows. Our steel mill has an effective annual production capacity of approximately 800,000 tons under current conditions.
Our facilities include two computerized rolling mills that allow for synchronized operation of the rolling mills and related equipment. The billets produced in the melt shop are reheated in two natural gas furnaces into a plastic-like state and then hot-rolled through one of the two rolling mills to form them into the desired shapes to produce the desired finished products.
To maintain our competitive edge, we are frequently investing in improvements to our facilities. Recent additions and enhancements have increased our operating efficiency, increased the types and volume of products that we can produce and improved the quality of finished products.
Cascade Steel Rolling Mills’ history dates back to its founding in 1968. Schnitzer Steel acquired Cascade in 1984.
| By The Numbers - Fiscal 2009 |
| Finished steel products sold |
381,000 short tons |
| Steel billets produced |
401,000 short tons |
| As of end of fiscal year 2009 (8/31/2009) |
Industry Associations
We are members of the following trade associations:
Return to About page