U.S. steel producers are buying up scrap businesses, seeking a steady supply of raw material from junked cars, old pipes and manufacturing waste for new mills.
Nucor Corp. , the largest producer of steel in the U.S., Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. and North Star BlueScope Steel spent more than $1 billion for steel scrap processors in 2021 as millions of tons of annual production capacity are being added to the domestic steel market in response to rising demand. Steel Dynamics Inc. in 2020 bought a Mexico-based scrap company to help supply a newly completed mill in southwest Texas.
