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Pacific Steel Group has proposed a micro mill to produce steel rebar to be built near Mojave.
Mark Olson, vice president of mill operations for Pacific Steel Group, spoke to members of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Nov. 1. The company has proposed a $540 million micro mill facility to produce steel rebar to be built south of Mojave.
Pacific Steel Group has proposed a micro mill to produce steel rebar to be built near Mojave.
Mark Olson, vice president of mill operations for Pacific Steel Group, spoke to members of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council on Nov. 1. The company has proposed a $540 million micro mill facility to produce steel rebar to be built south of Mojave.
TEHACHAPI — A state-of-the-art steel micro mill expected to bring 400 jobs to eastern Kern County is going through the approval process, with the release of the project’s environmental impact report expected on Nov. 17.
Mark Olson, vice president of mill operations for Pacific Steel Group, provided information about the project at the Nov. 1 meeting of the Greater Tehachapi Economic Development Council.
Olson said his company currently employs about 100 people at its corporate office in San Diego. When the micro mill is complete, those employees will join an additional 300 production workers at the new facility, he said. It will be located on Sierra Highway between Rosamond and Mojave.
The company is one of the largest reinforcing steel subcontractors in the country. It operates in the Pacific Northwest, Nevada, Arizona and California. About 75% of the company’s work is in the private sector and 25% in the public sector.
“We fabricate and install reinforcing steel for major infrastructure projects and major commercial projects throughout the West Coast,” Olson said. “That's things like parking structures, commercial high-rise buildings, bridges, pumping stations, water treatment plants and so on.”
Although the company has built many projects in California, it must bring steel from elsewhere.
Despite boasts from Gov. Gavin Newsom last year that the state may become the fourth largest economy in the world, Olson noted that the state “doesn’t produce one pound of steel. All of it is brought in from outside the state. And it’s even a bigger problem because those facilities that are located outside California — including overseas — have a scrap deficit.
“Last year, Los Angeles and San Francisco had an abundance of scrap metal available. It gets put in containers and shipped overseas, where rebar is manufactured and shipped back to California. Or it’s put in trucks and rail cars and shipped out of state,” he added.
Olson described the process the company plans to use at the micro mill. He said scrap metal sourced locally will be recycled by melting it in an electric arc furnace.
“We liquefy it to about 300 degrees Fahrenheit, it gets poured into a ladle and moves to a metallurgical refining station where we add the alloys needed to meet the seismic properties in California,” he said.
Robotics are employed to move the molten steel to molds. Through this process, reinforcing steel is produced.
“In less than two hours, we can go from a delivery of scrap to finished reinforcing steel in this facility,” Olson said.
“This is a bold plan when you consider that generations of mills have closed down in California over the past 50 years,” he said. “In fact, no mill has been built in the state in more than 50 years.”
The company will invest $540 million to build the new micro mill, Olson said, and will use renewable energy to power many operations and greatly reduce transportation emissions.
Olson said he expects a review of the environmental impact report by the Kern County Board of Supervisors to occur in March. Following the release of the EIR, there will be opportunities for public comment.
“This is incredibly exciting,” Tehachapi City Manager Greg Garrett said after Olson’s presentation. “I know that you've been working on this for a long time. I've been waiting for this day. This is an amazing project that will bring jobs to all of Kern County. I think it's a testament to the people in Kern County rallying behind you and your corporation.”
Garrett said he will ask the Tehachapi City Council to provide a letter of support for the project and encouraged the GTEDC to do the same.
“This plan — what you've done, what you're planning to construct, is quite amazing,” the city manager said.
Approval of the project, according to the Kern County Planning and Natural Resources Department, is expected to require approval of a general plan amendment, zone change, zone variance to allow a reduced number of parking spaces and approval of a precise development plan — in addition to certifying the completed EIR.
Claudia Elliott is a freelance journalist and former editor of the Tehachapi News. She lives in Tehachapi and can be reached by email: claudia@claudiaelliott.net.
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