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Steel Dynamics Ships First Order of Welded Rail
07/17/2007 - Steel Dynamics makes its first shipments of welded rails from the recently completed rail welding operation at Columbia City, Ind.
Steel Dynamics, Inc. has made its first shipments of welded rails from its recently completed rail welding operation at Columbia City, Ind. This is the first commercial use of the new rail-welding facility located on the site of SDI's Structural and Rail mill.
Shipments consisted of 81 rail strings, each 1360 feet in length. Each rail string resulted from welding together
seventeen 80-foot rails. Rail strings were then transported by two rail trains with specially outfitted flat-bed railcars and delivered to an industrial site in southern Indiana.
Although the initial rail welding utilized rail that was provided by the customer (because SDI’s mill is not yet in volume production of rails), the company says the facility will eventually be available for welding rails provided by third parties as well as rails produced on-site by the Steel Dynamics rail mill.
"Our state-of-the-art rail-welding facility provides additional value for railroad applications requiring welded rail strings up to 1600 feet in length," said Paul Kotsenas, SDI's Sales Manager for rail products. "While this initial shipment involved welding 80-foot rail segments, we look forward to early next year when we expect to produce and utilize our own 240- to 360- foot rails—which no one else in North America produces—to
fabricate long rail strings.
SDI's new rail-welding facility's rail spurs, buildings, and run-out beds extend more than one-half mile across company-owned property to the west of the Columbia City mill. The facility includes unique holding and
staging tables that have the capacity to store more than a trainload of finished strings. To support the operation, the company installed more than a mile of new rail spurs, some of which are capable of deploying two long continuous-welded-rail trains for staging and loading.
“Continuous-welded rail-strings provide the railroads with numerous benefits in the installation and maintenance of their right-of-ways,” continued Kotsenas. “By reducing the number of individual rails and the number of welds utilized in a mile of track, railroads can significantly reduce the probability and frequency of track weld failures and reduce overall track maintenance costs."
Steel Dynamics installed the new rail-welding facility at a cost of about $15 million. After a ramp-up of rail production, SDI expects to be able to supply about 300,000 tons of rail per year from the Columbia City mill to help meet North American railroads' growing demand for rails.
