California Steel Plans New Furnace at Old Kaiser Plant : Manufacturing: The $220-million project would help keep 1,000 jobs by making price-competitive products, the firm says.

California Steel Industries Inc., which makes finished-steel goods at the old Kaiser Steel plant in Fontana, plans to build its own steel-making furnace at the site and is asking the state’s help in expediting the permit process.

The $220-million electric arc furnace would not necessarily spur the hiring of more workers but would help preserve the 1,000 jobs already at the plant by making CSI products more competitive, said James Declusin, executive vice president.

The company is under pressure to lower its costs and prices because it currently has to buy raw steel from outside suppliers in the United States and overseas.

By making its own steel, “it would keep our prices competitive with anybody in the U.S. or imports of foreign steel,” he said.

CSI, which itself is foreign-owned, plans a news conference today with Gov. Pete Wilson to laud the assistance of Team California, which helped the firm decide to build its own furnace. It is a task force of public officials and business leaders that Wilson organized to promote California industries.

CSI is asking Team California’s help in getting the plant’s permits--including environmental approvals--within a year, as opposed to the two or three years it might ordinarily take, Declusin said.

The prospect of even a state-of-the-art steel furnace in the frequently smoggy Inland Empire would likely come under scrutiny. Anne Dennis, a coordinator at the Sierra Club’s San Bernardino office, said her group “absolutely” would study the mill’s potential impact on the environment.

Declusin said CSI is not threatening to build the plant elsewhere if the permit process is not accelerated but said any delay would increase the risk that “ultimately we would not be able to compete and would have to shut down.”

The company also “is in a race” to build the mill because two other steelmakers, Nucor Corp. and Oregon Steel Mills Inc., are currently searching for a site in the Pacific Northwest to build a similar mill, Declusin said.

CSI is jointly owned by Kawasaki Steel of Japan and Companhia Vale do Rio Doce Ltd., a Brazilian mining and raw materials concern. Completion of the new steel furnace is still subject to their final approval.