Gerdau Ameristeel Corp. recently awarded Danieli Morgårdshammar contracts to upgrade and modernize its Whitby, Ont., and Cartersville, Ga., facilities.

Goals for the Whitby steel mill modification include enhancing the mill's productivity and finished products quality. The upgrade will include installation of new finishing facilities, including a CCL system that will enable in-line continuous straightening, cutting to length and delivery of layers of bars and sections to the bundling equipment.

At Whitby, Gerdau Ameristeel will also add a secondary rebar bundler with stacking capabilities for flats and squares. The upgraded finishing facilities will process rebars, rounds, and squares (up to 35 mm diameter), angles (up to 3 inches) and flats and channels (up to 4 inches) at rates of 120 tons per hour.

According to COO André Johannpeter, "Gerdau Ameristeel is making substantial investments to make our operations world-class by improving process management and making necessary capital expenditures for state-of-the-art technology. The upgrades in Whitby and Cartersville will improve our productivity and help us better service our customers."

Gerdau Ameristeel will also upgrade its Cartersville, Ga., steel mill's finishing end with the installation of a 1,000-ton stationary cold shear and an 80-foot, double-head magnetic stacker. The upgrade will help to improve the mill's production by up to 140 tons per hour and enhance the quality of the final product. The upgraded facility will be capable of producing the Cartersville facility’s current product lines, including wide-flange beams (4- x 13-inch to 12- x 35-inch); corresponding standard beams (up to 8 inches); angles (up to 6 inches); channels (up to 12 inches); and flats (up to 12- x 1-inch).

Gerdau Ameristeel is the second largest minimill steel producer in North America with a capacity of over 8.4 million tons per year of mill finished steel products. Through its vertically integrated network of 15 minimills (including one 50%-owned minimill), 16 scrap recycling facilities, and 42 downstream operations, Gerdau Ameristeel primarily serves customers in the eastern two-thirds of North America. The company's products are generally sold to steel service centers, to fabricators, or directly to OEMs for use in a wide variety of industries.