Houston, 6 November (Argus) -- Long steelmaker CMC was ordered by a California jury to pay rebar fabricator Pacific Steel hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of a 2020 antitrust lawsuit.
The jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California ordered a $110mn payment to Pacific Steel, an amount that "will be trebled as a matter of law", CMC said The trial began on 21 October and concluded on Wednesday.
CMC said it will appeal the verdict.
Pacific Steel in October 2020 filed suit against CMC and Italian steelmaking equipment producer Danieli, alleging that CMC conspired with Danieli to prevent Pacific Steel from building a mill within 500 miles of CMC's former Rancho Cucamonga, California, site for six years. Pacific Steel plans to build a mill in Mojave, California, that is within that 500-mile range.
CMC in 2019 shuttered its 830,000 st/yr Rancho Cucamonga melt shop, citing high regulatory costs. Operations were redirected to its 400,000 st/yr site in Mesa, Arizona, and CMC sold the California land in 2020 for its real estate value, ceasing operations there in December 2021.
Pacific Steel in 2022 announced it would build a $350mn 380,000 short ton/yr greenfield electric arc furnace (EAF) micro mill in Mojave, with renewable energy connections supplied by Danieli, despite the ongoing litigation. Permitting for the mill, the first to be built in California in over 50 years, was completed in March.
Pacific Steel did not immediately respond to a request for comment.