New Capacity Roundup - February 2022 

Here is a selection of the major steelmakers' latest production and capacity investments announced this month.

North America 

The first coil has been produced at Steel Dynamics Inc.’s new EAF-based flat-rolled steel mill, in Sinton, Texas. The company recently held a ribbon cutting ceremony at the facility, which is expected to reach its full operating capacity of 3 million short tons, per year, during the fourth quarter of 2022. Additional galvanising and paint coating lines are still under construction. When they become operational, in mid-2023, they will be able to process up to 540,000 short tons of material, annually. 

Nucor has announced plans to construct a new continuous galvanising line and a pre-paint coating line at its Crawfordsville sheet mill, in Indiana. The equipment will have annual rated capacities of 300,000 and 250,000 short tons, respectively. Construction is expected to take two years to complete. Nucor’s board of directors has recently confirmed that the company will invest US$2.3 billion on various capacity improvement projects, throughout 2022. 

Europe 

ArcelorMittal has taken a step further with its plans to replace the blast furnaces, at its steelmaking facility in Fos-sur-Mer, with electric arc furnaces. The French government will support the project with a €1.7 billion investment. The company also intends to install new direct reduced iron equipment at its Dunkirk site. This will have an annual production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes. ArcelorMittal is making the changes to increase its output of “environmentally friendly” steel. 

Italian steelmaker, Duferco, has broken ground on the new section rolling mill at its San Zeno Naviglio facility. The €180 million project, powered by renewable energy, is due to be commissioned in 2023. It will raise the company’s annual output of long products to 1.5 million tonnes – an increase of close to 75 percent. 

A new soaking furnace has entered service at the Fagersta Stainless wire rod plant, in Sweden. The unit is used to maintain and equalise billet temperature as it moves between the induction reheating furnace and the rolling mill, thus reducing overall energy consumption. Construction and installation took seven months to complete. Fagersta Stainless, part of the Outokumpu Group since 2018, produces close to 50,000 tonnes of stainless wire rod, annually.