US steel mills threatened as hot metal piles up in private-equity recycler's 'chaos' bankruptcy

Phoenix Services, a Radnor, Pennsylvania, company that keeps the largest U.S. steel mills running by recycling their molten slag, is in its sixth month of bankruptcy reorganization, as tons of waste pile up at its clients' plants. But why? Was Phoenix forced to seek Chapter 11 protection by inflation, Fed rate hikes, the Ukraine war and other factors beyond its control that have made familiar business arrangements unsustainable? Or did Phoenix and its financiers, led by its private-equity owner Apollo Global Management, use economic conditions as a pretext to rip up contracts and try to pass r...