October 07, 2008

SeverCorr starts melt shop, caster and HSM

Platts reported that emerging US steel maker SeverCorr has begun to produce its own HR coils with the start up of the melt shop, caster and hot mill at its nearly completed mill in Columbus in Mississippi. So far it had been purchasing HR coil from other US mills since starting up its cold rolling operations earlier in 2007.

The SeverCorr melt shop, designed to produce high quality exposed steels, utilizes an electric arc furnace with a melting capacity of 1.7 million short tons per year. The mill's 265 short tons furnace capacity, with 165 short tons tapped into the ladle, combines to minimize slag carryover. The melt shop also has a ladle metallurgy furnace with a state of the art alloy feed system which allows for faster processing time.

The six stands, 74 inch wide hot mill will initially produce more than 1.5 million short tons per year of high quality steels in phase one of operations, of which 350,000 short tons will be available for direct sale to customers in a gauge range of 0.054 inches to 0.500 inches. The balance of the hot bands will be further processed into HR pickled and oiled products, CR products and substrate for the facility's galvanizing line, which will be brought online over the next several months.

Mr John Correnti CEO of SeverCorr said that "This is the announcement we have been eagerly waiting to make since the idea of building a steel mill began 4 years ago. To be able to say we are making steel less than 2 years after breaking ground is a testament to the dedication and hard work of the entire SeverCorr team."

SeverCorr is majority owned by Russian steel maker Severstal.