Steel Dynamics Inc. announced on Tuesday, July 31, that it will invest an additional $75 million at its Structural and Rail Division at Columbia City, Indiana, in order to increase the mill's combined production capacity for structural steel and rail to two million tons per year.
This additional investment will add a second caster to the second rolling mill currently being constructed, for which an investment of $200 million was previously announced.
Once in operation, the new medium-section rolling mill will be capable of rolling some lighter products made at present by the existing mill, along with other new light structural products.
The second caster will provide enough semi finished steel for each of the two rolling mills to operate at a production capacity of approximately one million tons per year.
Completion of the project is slated for the fourth quarter of 2008.
Explaining the company's decision to further expand its structural steel capacity, Dick Teets, president and COO of SDI's Steel Shapes and Building Products division, told the press, "Since Steel Dynamics announced the addition of the second rolling mill at Columbia City last year, the markets for structural and rail products have remained strong and our assessment is that this is a market where Steel Dynamics can continue to grow."