Siemens has received a contract from Steel Dynamics Inc to engineer and manufacture a new 4 strand billet & bloom casting machine for its Structural and Rail Division at Columbia City in Indiana state of US. The contract amount has not been disclosed. Start up of the casting machine is slated to occur during the first quarter of 2009.

Siemens will provide engineering and equipment, including plate molds, external mold electromagnetic stirring, hydraulic oscillation, air mist secondary cooling linked with the DynaSpeed Metallurgical Cooling Model, DynaGap SoftReduction stands for improved internal strand quality, complete Level II systems and technological models as well as Siemens modular PLC architecture. SDI is responsible for construction and installation. The Siemens caster will be installed initially with four strands and designed for expansion to five strands as warranted by market conditions.

With the addition of this second caster at the Columbia City facility, SDI will be able to provide steel to both of its rolling mills, each with a planned production capacity of 1 million tons per year. The design of the new casting machine will enable SDI to produce high quality rails at its Columbia City facility.

This project is part of the USD 75 million investment approved by SDI’s board of directors in July 2007 to increase the mill’s combined production capacity for structural steel and rail product to 2 million tons annually.

In March, Siemens announced the award of a contract by SDI to add a fourth strand to an existing three strand bloom & beam blank caster also at the Columbia City facility. This project is currently scheduled for commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2007.