Bankrupt US Steel Canada Will Restart the Coke Ovens in Hamilton

So reports the Hamilton Spectator here. I'm surprised that this happened so early and I actually thought that there was a good chance they wouldn't be restarted at all. The Spec has reported that companies are interested:

"Adding extra urgency, the company said, was a ship carrying 30,000 tonnes of coal bound for the Lake Erie plant that could be redirected to Hamilton if permission was given Friday. 

The company said keeping the Hamilton oven in "hot idle" — still being fed fuel so it could be brought back into production — costs $1.5 million a month. If a stream of revenue could be created to offset that cost the company would benefit and the oven itself would be kept healthy, possibly making it more appealing to a buyer. 

Some buyers, the company added, are already "kicking the tires" of the coke plant."

Spending 1.5 million per month for hot idling to keep the battery viable is quite expensive and it makes me wonder how valuable the battery is. In some sense it has a license to pollute as in comparison to the overall steel making process it is quite high. 

It is a question of whether this is worth it to Hamilton to keep in operation. If Dofasco ends up buying it, that isn't so bad, however shipping the made coke from coal to another city probably wouldn't be worth the extra pollution to the city for the business it would generate locally.

US Steel Idles Hamilton Coke Plant

The Spectator is reporting that US Steel is idling the coke making operation at their Hamilton facility which is under creditor protection.

From the article it isn't exactly clear whether it will be shut down completely which basically ruins the operation or hot idles it allowing it to be restarted.

In terms of pollution, the coke making operation is pretty much the dirtiest part of the steel making process (and the blast furnaces are shut at Hamilton anyways) so shutting them completely or hot idling them will likely reduce air pollution in Hamilton (although in Hamilton car exhaust now likely dwarfs the coke making as a source of air pollution). Getting a license for a new coke making operation is supposedly quite difficult in the US and Canada so it has some value, maybe to Arcelor Dofasco. The world is awash in steel however, so maybe this is the end for all the operations at the US Steel Hamilton site.

How Much Steel Does Hamilton Make Per Year?

With employment declining in Hamilton's steel sector for decades, I've been wondering, does Hamilton make more steel now than ever? Steel producers have been increasing productivity since steel started being made, reducing the number of people to produce a ton of steel.

This steel industry site lists 2010 Canadian production as 13 million tonnes. How much was produced in Hamilton? How does that compare to previous years? I found this history of Dofasco website with some production numbers listed, the most recent being 4,400,000 tons in 1990. I couldn't find a number for today, but I would be curious to see what it is.

Obviously Stelco's recent troubles likely reduce the overall Hamilton number. Whether Stelco/US Steel will ever get back to full production in Hamilton is an open question.