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Konecranes to Supply 19 Cranes for New SeverCorr Minimill

01/09/2006 - Jan. 9, 2006 — KCI Konecranes will supply nineteen SM Spacemaker cranes to SeverCorr LLC for its new steel minimill in Lowndes County, Miss.

Jan. 9, 2006 — KCI Konecranes will supply nineteen SM Spacemaker cranes to SeverCorr LLC for its new steel minimill in Lowndes County, Miss.

SeverCorr will produce hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated products, and will be the first mini-mill in the U. S. to produce exposed automotive grade steel.

It is the first greenfield mill built in the U. S. since the mid-1990s, designed to supply the growing number of automotive producers located in the Southern United States.

SeverCorr's tandem cold mill will allow it to reduce product to the thickness, surface finish and surface quality that auto manufacturers require. SeverCorr will also have the ability to produce 72-inch-wide steel suitable for SUV production, another first for a U. S. minimill.

The new SeverCorr facility is a joint venture between steel industry veteran John Correnti, former CEO of Nucor, and Severstal Group, a Russia-based global steel producer with worldwide operations.

Konecranes America Inc. will build the radio-controlled SM Spacemaker cranes for SeverCorr in its Houston, Texas, facility. Eight cranes will be used in the hot mill to handle tundishes, machine rolls, mill motors and other equipment as well as hot coils. The 11 cold mill cranes will handle finished coils in the pickling, annealing, tempering and galvanizing lines. Some of the cranes will be utilized in the shipping area with motorized, rotating coil grabs, c-hooks and magnets supplied by SeverCorr LLC. Several cranes will have magnets on the auxiliary hoists for scrap cleanup.

“We provide our customers with the high quality coil steel that they require for exposed automotive parts,” said LeRoy Prichard, Vice President, Steel Technology and Engineering, SeverCorr LLC. “The finishing stream also requires a tandem cold mill, which is something most mini-mills don’t have, and the overhead cranes are a key component in this process.” According to Prichard, Konecranes was initially invited to bid the project because of their reputation as one of the world’s major crane suppliers. “Konecranes employs the most current technology for building and operating cranes, and in the final analysis, they provided us with the most cost-effective package and shortest delivery time,” said Prichard.

Most of the cranes are rated for 55 tons process duty for coil handling and 100 tons for maintenance lifts. They will feature a low-headroom design that will favorably impact SeverCorr’s building costs. They will also have a high degree of commonality in key components that will provide cost savings for years to come.

John Correnti, President and CEO of SeverCorr, was personally involved in negotiating the crane purchase. “Konecranes gave us the best proposal, and as a result, they will be building more than 75% of the cranes for our facility,” Correnti said. “They have a good reputation and I’m sure they’ll do a great job for us.”

KCI Konecranes will deliver the cranes to SeverCorr from May through July 2006.

KCI Konecranes is a world leader in advanced lifting solutions and maintenance services for overhead cranes. Konecranes America Inc. is the Konecranes division specializing in engineered, severe-duty cranes for process industries and engineered solutions to address specific customer needs, including new equipment, modernizations, relocations, engineering studies, project management and consulting. Konecranes has one of the largest service support networks in the world, and has supplied a number of U. S. steelmakers for both new facilities and retrofits.