Arcelor and US Steel still operate integrated plants.
All steel is not simply steel, and items like a deep drawing steel can have purity requirements that exceed what an arc furnace operating on scrap can produce.
I suspect that nowadays, primary steel is kind of a niche market, precisely for the sort of application you describe below:
"All steel is not simply steel, and items like a deep drawing steel can have purity requirements that exceed what an arc furnace operating on scrap can produce.
Which is why I made the point....use coal where it makes economic sense. But the days of massive coal production in the US are done with for the foreseeable future. If the coal miners need jobs, it seems to me that the thing to do is put them to work developing the Marcellus and Utica shales, which are right under their feet.