New Capacity Roundup - March 2022

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

Europe

Salzgitter has announced that it plans to construct a 2.1 million tonnes per year capacity DRI facility. The new plant will incorporate technology that enables increasing ratios of hydrogen, as a reducing gas, in the production of sponge iron. The designs are currently in the planning stage, but the company expects to start construction in the summer of 2022.

Ferriere Nord, part of the Pittini Group, has commissioned a new billet welder at its long product facility in Osoppo, Italy. The unit’s improved design reduces maintenance and cleaning down time, resulting in a five percent increase in plant efficiency. The company plans to further upgrade operations, with modifications to the site’s reheating furnace, and steel bar and spooler lines, scheduled for the coming months.

Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann has commissioned two 285 tonne capacity ladle-treatment stands at its Duisburg-Huckingen steel mill. The new equipment can process 5.2 million tonnes of liquid steel per year.

Polish steelmaker, Cognor, plans to increase its merchant bar production with the construction of a new rolling mill at a site near Katowice. The facility will have an annual production capacity of up to 450,000 tonnes. Bars from this site will replace the material currently produced at the company’s plant in Zawiercie, which has an annual output of 100,000 tonnes.

North America

US Steel has announced that it will construct a new pig iron caster, with an annual capacity of 500,000 short tons, at its Gary Works plant, in Indiana. The company is investing US$60 million into the project, which it expects to be commissioned in the first half of 2023. Once complete, pig iron produced at the Gary Works site will supply nearly half of the ore-based metallics required by the company’s EAF-powered Big River Steel facility.

Asia

Nippon Steel has confirmed that it has started the relining of blast furnace No.3 at its Nagoya steelworks, in Japan. The company has earmarked over US$400 million for the project, which will raise the unit’s inner volume to 4,425 cubic metres – an increase of approximately three percent. The furnace is scheduled to be refired in early June.

Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron & Steel has ordered the construction of a one million tonnes per year capacity DRI plant, at its production base in Guangdong Province. The site is currently the largest planned hydrogen-based DRI facility in China. Commissioning is expected towards the end of 2023. Pellets produced at the plant will be transported to a new EAF mill, to be located nearby.

Production has started at Ruigang Metal Company’s new cold rolling mill, in Ningde City, Fujian Province. The facility has capacity to produce up to 400,000 tonnes of 400 series bright annealed stainless steel strip, per year.