Acerinox aims to expand production

Acerinox aims to expand production

Spanish stainless steelmaker Acerinox is aiming to expand its meltshop production at Columbus mill located in South Africa. The meltshop production will be increased to 750'000 tons in 2004. The company is planning to increase the hot rolled capacity to 750'000 tons in 2004 over 541'000 tons in 2002 and 490'000 tons in 2000. For 2004, the cold rolled target is 400'000 tons against 235'000 tons in 2002 and 160'000 tons in 2000. Acerinox will invest $140 million for these increases between 2002 and 2004, by eliminating equipment upgrades and some additional hardware.