The installation of a new intermediate finishing line at the Gambrinus Steel Plant, the larger of the two projects, will improve manufacturing competitiveness with a more efficient operation that incorporates the latest technologies and employs lean processes. It will be built in a combination of unused and repurposed buildings on the Gambrinus site. The line, which will more efficiently handle both bar and tube products, ultimately will replace existing batch-type finishing processes at the plant when it is fully operational in 2013.
The small-bar mill at the Harrison facility, which opened in 2008, continues to increase its output in response to demand, requiring additional space in the laydown yard outside the mill for both finished and semifinished steel. Expanding the yard necessitates the demolition of several adjacent, unused buildings. This project will be completed by year end.
Over the past four years, the Timken Company has invested $200 million into its steel operations. Those investments include two new heat-treat lines and a scrap logistics system added between 2006 and 2007, a long-length tube line added in 2008 and a new small bar mill, which was commissioned at the Harrison facility in 2008.
The majority of steel manufactured by Timken is custom melted to the customer's chemistry and manufacturing specifications in solid round or square bars, seamless tubes or semi-finished parts.