December 04, 2008

Siemens to upgrade SDI Bar Mill at Pittsboro

It is reported that Siemens Metals Technologies has a new contract from Steel Dynamics Inc. to modernize the bar mill at SDI's long products plant at Pittsboro in Indiana. The project is to be completed late next year.

The project involves installing two new roughing stands in the 11 year old line, originally build by Pomini SA for the site's first operator Qualitech Steel.

The present operation is capable of producing 550,000 tons per year of special bar quality steels. The new Red Ring roughing stands are part of an improvement and expansion program to roll larger blooms and raise the mill's capacity to 750,000 tons per year.

SDI acquired Qualitech in 2001 whereas Siemens acquired the former Pomini operations in the course of its takeover of Voest Alpine Industrieanlagenbau in 2005.

Currently, Siemens is also supplying the major equipment for a new billet caster at SDI's Structural and Rail division at Columbia City in Indiana.