An executive order signed by President Donald Trump this week threatens steel consumption by the burgeoning US offshore wind industry.
Trump on Monday ordered that the offshore continental shelf be withdrawn from new wind energy leasing, effective 21 January until the order is revoked. While the order theoretically protects existing leases, Trump also ordered the secretary of the interior, in consultation with the US attorney general, to conduct ecological, economic, and environmental reviews to determine if the leases should be terminated or amended.
"We're not going to do the wind thing," Trump said.
Trump's withdrawal targets only wind energy leasing on federal property, and leaves leasing for oil and gas, mineral exploration and environmental conservation untouched.
The order could cut demand for US platemakers such as Nucor and JSW USA, who have made investments in their operations to target the offshore wind industry. A single monopile can require upwards of 2,500 metric tonnes (t) (2,756 short tons) of steel, according to German-based producer EEW Group, which has been building a monopile production facility in Paulsboro, New Jersey, to serve the US offshore wind industry.
Japanese trading company Mitsui, Spanish wind turbine manufacturer GRI Renewable Industries and Nucor announced in August that they were considering developing a joint venture wind tower plant on the US east coast.
Nucor recently built a 1.2mn short tons (st)/yr plate mill in Brandenburg, Kentucky, that the steelmaker wants to use to supply plate to monopile structure production.
JSW Steel, an Indian steelmaker, announced in June it would invest $110mn to upgrade its Baytown, Texas, plate mill so it could make plates for offshore monopiles. The Baytown mill produced nearly 121,000st of plate and pipe in the fourth quarter, up by 15pc from a year earlier.
Trump is also attempting to halt at least one onshore wind project, pausing activities around the Lava Ridge Wind Project, a potentially 1,000MW system on public lands in Idaho. Trump called the Bureau of Land Management's approval in December "allegedly contrary to the public interest" and subject to "legal deficiencies". Interior will evaluate the project's record of decision and possibly conduct new analysis on the system.