Open / Close Advertisement

AK Steel Fires Up Modified Hot-Dipped Galvanizing Line

“We're kind of off and running. And we expect that we will meet the ramp-up schedule,” president and chief operating officer Kirk Reich said during a conference call Wednesday to discuss the company’s third-quarter earnings.

AK Steel modified the line and added new process technology that allows it to produce both coated and cold-rolled, next-generation advanced high-strength steels, specifically its NEXMET 1000 and 1200 products.

“We're excited about it. We think it brings us great flexibility and great capability that is fairly unique in the industry,” Reich said.

The company introduced its NEXMET family of steel in August and is marketing it to automakers as a light-weighting solution. AK Steel has said NEXMET 1000 and 1200 offer significantly improved ductility at tensile strengths of 1,000 and 1,200 megapascals. 

“We'll be running some of that material yet this year and expect that we'll be providing samples early next year,” Reich told analysts.