SSAB has announced plans to invest up to $100 million in its steel mill near Mobile, Alabama, to increase production capacity for quenched and tempered (Q&T) steels and to reduce costs.
According to a company press release, the investments will take place during 2019-2021 and will increase the annual capacity of Q&T in Mobile from 300,000 tons to 400,000 tons. Taking into account the cost savings, the payback time is estimated to be less than four years.
The investment is targeted at three areas: formatting, blasting and painting, as well as shipping capacity. This will eliminate production bottlenecks and increase annual Q&T capacity.
In parallel, a new, accelerated cooling system will also be installed and this will improve the potential to grow volumes of more advanced premium products, while reducing the need for alloys. The investment has been designed to include the potential to build additional Q&T capacity through direct quenching similar to the technology currently used at SSAB’s production facilities in Finland and Sweden.
“Over the past 20 years, we have increased Q&T volumes by an average of 7 percent a year. There is great market potential as Q&T penetration is still relatively low in, for example, North and South America, where we now plan to increase capacity,” says Martin Lindqvist, SSAB’s President and CEO.