Germany-based SMS Group has announced that it is currently constructing an integrated, environment-friendly plant complex for high-grade steel products and specialty steels for the recently founded US steelmaker Big River Steel.
The plant complex is expected to produce 1.5 million mt of steel products per year in the first phase with an electric arc furnace to melt steel scrap in an energy-efficent process to produce heats of good-quality steel, as well as to refine these heats into specialty steels, while the annual production volume is expected to increase to three million mt in the second phase.
According to SMS Group's announcement, Big River Steel will invest around $1.3 billion in the new project located in the US state of Arkansas. Besides the silicon steel strips which will be used in generators and transformers, high-strength Advanced High Strength Steels (AHSS grades) can be produced for lightweight automotive enginnering in order to minimize fuel consumption. The plant is designed to supply strip widths of up to 1,930 mm, said SMS Group.