ThyssenKrupp Breaks Ground for New Alabama Facility
11/05/2007 - ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA break ground on the site of the $3.7-billion carbon and stainless steel processing facility in Calvert, Ala., marking the beginning of construction for the 3500-acre plant.
ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC, and ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA, LLC, broke ground Friday, Nov. 2 on the site of its $3.7-billion carbon and stainless steel processing facility in Calvert, Ala., marking the beginning of construction for the 3500-acre plant.
The groundbreaking follows the receipt of State and Federal agencies approval of the Permit applications required to begin construction, and allows ThyssenKrupp to remain on schedule for commencement of operations in March 2010.
"The global steel industry is undergoing a dynamic consolidation process,” said Ekkehard D. Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG. “We are taking our own individual approach, with a clear forward strategy to further position ourselves as a global player in the steel markets of Europe and North America.”
ThyssenKrupp’s Alabama facility will include a hot strip mill that will be used primarily to process slabs from ThyssenKrupp's new steel plant in Brazil. The facility will also feature cold rolling and hot-dip coating capacities for high-quality end products of flat carbon steel. The facility will have an annual capacity of 4.1 million tonnes of carbon steel end products.
The Alabama facility will also incorporate stainless steel meltshop with an annual capacity of up to one million tonnes of slabs; these slabs will also be processed on the hot strip mill. A cold rolling facility is to be built, which will be designed initially to produce 350,000 tons of cold strip and 125,000 tons of pickled hot strip. The stainless steel plant will provide ThyssenKrupp Mexinox in San Luis Potosi (Mexico) with its requirements of 340,000 tonnes of hot band.
Since its May 2007 announcement for the new state-of-the-art facility, ThyssenKrupp has opened a project office in Mobile, awarded several site preparation contracts to Alabama-based companies, and placed an order for the hot strip mill and cold rolling complex. ThyssenKrupp has also held four Community open house meetings throughout the Mobile area to inform approximately 2000 residents about the new plant.
The company said its next main focus—in addition to construction—will be on developing a first-rate workforce to help operate the facility. ThyssenKrupp will work together with the Alabama Industrial Development Training office (AIDT), to train and recruit workers for the facility. The new plant, when fully operational, will create 2700 permanent jobs.
ThyssenKrupp noted that is committed to meeting the most stringent environmental protection standards throughout the construction and operation of its new facility, and will employ the most technologically advanced protection measures. For example, process heaters and furnaces will be fired by clean-burning natural gas and electricity—not coal. Process equipment will also be designed with extensive energy recovery and re-use technologies.
Based in Duesseldorf, Germany, the ThyssenKrupp Group is a global technology company that comprises five business segments—Steel, Stainless, Technologies, Elevator and Services. The company has annual sales of approximately €47 billion (US$61 billion) and employs 188,000 employees in over 70 countries worldwide.
Based in Duisburg, Germany, ThyssenKrupp Steel is the holding company for ThyssenKrupp Group’s carbon steel activities. Last year, it produced approximately 14 million tonnes of crude steel and generated sales of €10.7 billion (US$14 billion). This business segment is focused on high-quality carbon steel flat products and is one of the world's leading producers, ranking second in Europe. The segment employs over 30,000 people.
Its subsidiaries—active in processing, coating and steel services—include Rasselstein GmbH, the world's largest tinplate production site in Andernach, Germany, and Duisburg-based ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks GmbH, world market and technology leader in laser-welded blanks for the auto industry.
ThyssenKrupp Stainless, also based in Duisburg, Germany, unites all of ThyssenKrupp's activities in the areas of stainless steel flat-rolled products, nickel alloys and titanium. ThyssenKrupp Stainless has achieved leading market positions worldwide, with annual sales of €6.4 billion (US$8.3 billion) and 12,200 employees around the globe. Operating companies include German-based ThyssenKrupp Nirosta, Italy's ThyssenKrupp Acciai Speciali Terni, ThyssenKrupp Mexinox in Mexico, Shanghai Krupp Stainless in China and ThyssenKrupp VDM.
ThyssenKrupp Stainless International is responsible for all stainless sales, distribution and service activities of the Stainless segment where these are not directly allocated to the production companies. The Stainless segment serves global customers in the appliance, electronics, automotive and aerospace industries.
ThyssenKrupp operations can be found in every state in the U.S. There are 70 ThyssenKrupp companies in more than 400 locations accounting for 25,000 employees and more than $9.7 billion in annual sales. Through its predecessor companies, ThyssenKrupp has been part of the U.S. historical landscape for 170 years, dating back to 1837 when Alfred Krupp, founder of predecessor company Krupp, provided coin minting machine prototypes to the U.S.
