AK Steel Corp. announced Monday that it will invest $180 million in its specialty steel operations in Ohio and Pennsylvania to meet the high demand for grain-oriented electrical steels.
The company will replace two of the three electric arc furnaces at its Butler Works facility in Butler, Pennsylvania with a new furnace capable of melting over 1.45 million net tons per year, roughly 40 percent more than is currently produced with the three-furnace operation. The new capacity will allow for the production of 400,000 tons of slabs per year, reducing AK's dependency on other slab producers.
Additionally, the installation of a ladle metallurgy furnace at Butler Works as well as annealing and coating equipment to be installed at both Butler Works and the company's Zanesville, Ohio operations will help lower production costs and increase capacity at these facilities, the company said.
The projects are expected to be completed by the end of 2009.