A core unit on the plant site in northern Duisburg, it started production almost 50 years ago. At over 570 meters in length, the building housing the hot wide strip mill remains one of the biggest production facilities in the ThyssenKrupp Group and in German industry as a whole. Hot strip mill No. 2 employs altogether around 520 people.
 
Hot rolled strip is the basis for all ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe’s flat steel products. The company operates four hot strip mills with a total annual capacity of around 12 million metric tons: Hot strip mills No. 1 (in Bruckhausen) and No. 2 (in Beeckerwerth) along with a casting-rolling line are located in Duisburg; hot strip mill No. 3 is in Bochum. To produce hot strip, steel slabs are rolled into thin strip in a series of mill stands at temperatures of more than 1,000 degrees Celsius. This material is either used by customers directly or further processed at other sites of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe and then delivered e.g. to automobile manufacturers.
 
With a capacity of more than 400,000 tons per month, the hot strip mill in Beeckerwerth is the biggest at ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe. Planning work on the construction of the mill up to start-up lasted two years. In December 1962 the first support column for the mill shop was put in place. After an assembly time of just 16 months, the first rolling operations were carried out in April 1964.
 
Hot strip mill No. 2 has been extensively modernized over the years. For example, a new accelerated cooling system was installed which enabled ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe to expand its range of high-strength steels for oil and gas pipelines. Further investments included a computer control system for the roughing and finishing mills and larger motors for various roll drives. The transportation and storage facilities for finished hot-rolled coils will also be upgraded in a next step.