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SMS Demag to Supply Hot Mill, Cold Rolling Complex for new TKS Mega-Mill

10/17/2007 - ThyssenKrupp Steel awards SMS Demag an order for a hot strip mill and cold rolling complex for the new high-capacity steel and stainless steel producing and processing facility planned for Calvert, Ala.

ThyssenKrupp Steel AG has awarded SMS Demag AG an order for a hot strip mill and a cold rolling complex.  
ThyssenKrupp’s new steel/stainless steel facility will have an annual capacity of 4.5 million tonnes of end products.
 
It will include a hot strip mill that will be used primarily to process slabs from the company’s new steel mill in Brazil. It will also include a stainless steel meltshop with an annual first-phase capacity of up to one million tonnes of slabs, which will be also processed on the hot strip mill.
 
The new U.S. plant will also feature cold rolling and hot-dip coating capacity for high-quality end products of flat carbon steel.
 
The cold rolling facility will be designed initially to produce 325,000 tonnes of cold strip and 100,000 tonnes of pickled hot strip.
 
The new plant complex is expected to begin operations in 2010. It is considered to be one of the largest private industrial development projects in the United States over the next decade.
 
The plants are destined for ThyssenKrupp’s new $3.7-billion steel and stainless steel producing and processing facility planned for Calvert, Ala. The two parties agreed on confidentiality regarding the value of the order.
 
The new hot strip mill will cover the entire production range for all grades—from carbon to stainless steel. It will be designed for an annual production of 5.4 million tonnes, making it the world’s largest facility of this type for manufacturing quality, high-strength steels e.g. for the automotive industry. The hot strip mill will process slabs from ThyssenKrupp’s new steel plant in Brazil and stainless slabs from ThyssenKrupp Stainless USA.
 
The cold rolling complex will comprise a coupled pickling line and tandem mill capable of producing 2.5 million tonnes of cold strip per year, plus a separate continuous pickling line and skinpass mill.
 
“This contract award is a very significant step in the development of our Alabama facility,” Bob Soulliere, President and CEO of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, LLC, said. “The hot strip mill and cold rolling complex are two of the most critical components for our operations.”
 
Erection of the plants in Alabama will start in early 2008, with completion scheduled for March 2010. For additional details, ThyssenKrupp offers the following movie clip about their greenfield facility.
 
Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, the ThyssenKrupp Group is a global technology company that consists of 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.
 
ThyssenKrupp Steel AG, based in Duisburg, Germany, is the holding company for the Group’s carbon steel activities. The largest single entity of ThyssenKrupp, 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, and has subsidiaries that are active in processing, coating and steel services. Subsidiaries 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 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 US$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.
 
SMS group is, under the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It essentially consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2006, some 9000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.