Casablanca, Morocco-based steelmaker Maghreb Steel (MS) has announced that it produced its first hot rolled coils at its new Stackel mill at the start of February.
The new rolling mill, supplied by German plant equipment supplier SMS Siemag, has a HRC production capacity of 1 million mt per year and is expected to reach full capacity within the next two years. With its new rolling mill, MS will be able to produce coils up to a maximum weight of 30 mt, in maximum width of 1.575 mm and in a thickness range from 1.5 mm to 25 mm.
MS will keep 500,000 mt of the rolling mill's annual production to process CRC, galvanized and pre-painted coils and to supply to its own service centre. The remaining tonnage will be sold to the domestic and international markets, mainly North and West Africa as well as the Mediterranean area.
MS, a current slab importer, is in the process of building its own slab plant supplied by SMS Siemag, which is expected to be commissioned in February 2011. The company produces about 250,000-300,000 mt of steel products per year as well as sandwich panels. In the future, the company intends to increase its capacity of galvanized and pre-painted coils.