NORTH AMERICA HEADLINESNorth America
Outokumpu Completes Quarto Plate Upgrades at New Castle
Aug. 12, 2010 Outokumpu announced plans to unveil recently completed upgrades to its North American quarto plate facility in New Castle, Ind.
The upgrades, which Outokumpu had announced in late 2007, included a new plate finishing line with in-line annealing, shot blasting, and leveling as well as improvements to the 120-inch wide line including state-of-the-art environmental controls. The company said the upgrades, which represent an investment of more than EUR 45 million, will allow the mill to improve production efficiencies to better compete in the global stainless steel market.
The Indiana mill is Outokumpu’s only location in North America producing specialized stainless steel plate recognized for its high resistance to corrosion.
“We see tremendous potential in the specialty steel being produced at New Castle,” said CEO Juha Rantanen. “The investment program impacted nearly every phase of the operations and will yield best-in-class manufacturing capabilities for products in which Outokumpu already has a very strong market position.”
Outokumpu is a market leader in stainless steel quarto plate — individually rolled wide and thick plate — with a global market share of some 20%. Thick and wide individually rolled quarto plates are used in the energy sector, in extracting salt from seawater and transporting chemicals, and are widely employed in the process industries for manufacturing pressure cylinders, tanks, thick-walled tubes, bridge structures and process equipment.
Outokumpu is a global leader in stainless steel with the vision to be the undisputed number one. Outokumpu employs some 7 500 people in more than 30 countries, and the Group's head office is located in Espoo, Finland.