ThyssenKrupp Starts up Stainless Production at New Alabama Mill
10/08/2010 - ThyssenKrupp has officially started up its new stainless steel mill in Calvert, Ala., with the successful production of 64 inches wide (roughly 160 cm) product on its cold rolling mill.
ThyssenKrupp has officially started up its new stainless steel mill in Calvert, Ala., with the successful production of 64 inches wide (roughly 160 cm) product on its first of three cold rolling mills.
Additional units that also have gone into operation to produce and further process the cold-rolled strip include a Sendzimir mill, cold-rolled annealing and pickling line, a skinpass stand, and finishing equipment such as coil polishing, slitting and cut-to-length lines.
“Three very challenging years are behind us,” said Dr. Ulrich Albrecht-Früh, CEO of ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA. “The start of production marks a key milestone. I am proud of our team, who has mastered this complex project so successfully in a difficult economic environment.”
Work on building the new site to produce carbon and stainless steel flat products began in 2007 in partnership with ThyssenKrupp Steel USA. The capital investment for the integrated stainless mill in Calvert is around 1.4 billion US dollars.
In preparation for the hot commissioning of the stainless equipment, the company shipped initial white coils to the USA from ThyssenKrupp Nirosta in June 2010. Following startup, production on the cold rolling mill is now being ramped up step by step using material supplied from ThyssenKrupp’s stainless mills in Europe.
The company said the Calvert facility’s initial 100,000 tonnes a year cold-rolled capacity will increase over time to a maximum 140,000 tonnes a year.
“For our customers it represents an important signal,” added Albrecht-Früh. “They can now source their material directly from our new state-of-the-art mill and can find people here who can deal with their specific requirements e. g. sizes, something we couldn’t offer economically in the USA before.”
The company noted that construction of other units is either planned or underway, including the foundation works for the hot-rolled annealing and pickling line, which began in January 2010 and is to start up in fall 2011. The equipment in place and still to be built will give ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA a unique selling proposition with the widest material available on the US market.
Construction and ramp-up of the remaining units is being kept flexible, according to the company, including startup of the meltshop.
ThyssenKrupp holds roughly 12% of the U.S. stainless market share and over 15% of the Canada market, while in Mexico the company is market leader with more than 70%. Up to now, most shipments have come from the ThyssenKrupp Mexinox mill in San Luis Potosí and the European plants of the ThyssenKrupp Stainless group.
