Steel Mills

Galvanize Line 2 Restarted at Sharon Coating

February 6, 2017

NLMK USA has restarted its #2 hot-dip galvanizing line at the Sharon Coating facility in Pennsylvania in response to increased domestic demand.

The #2 line had been idled since 2002 due to weak demand in the U.S. galvanized steel market. The line has a capacity of approximately 226,000 metric tonnes per year (249,118 tons) and will increase Sharon Coatings effective capacity by 43 percent. The #1 hot-dip galvanizing line, that has been running while #2 was idled, has a capacity of 521,000 metric tonnes per year (574,294 tons).

Bob Miller, NLMK USA CEO, said, “We are seeing demand increase in the USA market, driven by the pick-up in activity in the automotive and construction sectors, and trade measures introduced to protect the US market from unfairly traded imports. Sharon Coating traditionally supplies galvanized steel to manufacturers of engineered steel buildings, general manufacturing, construction products, solar energy, automotive, and service centers. Our customers took very positively to our plans to expand our offering of high value added products that are in such high demand in the market.”

Sharon Coating produces hot-dip galvanized steel from cold-rolled steel made at NLMK Pennsylvania, located just 2 miles to the South, from slabs supplied by Novolipetsk. The two NLMK USA facilities operate together, forming a single complex that manufactures value added steel products.

In 2016, NLMK USA increased its galvanized steel sales by 10 percent to 359,000 metric tonnes (395,723 tons), posting 19 percent year-on-year growth in Q4 alone.

About NLMK USA:NLMK USA Division is one of the top steel manufacturers in the USA. The division comprises NLMK Indiana, NLMK Pennsylvania and Sharon Coating. It produces slabs, hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvanized steel. NLMK USA’s steelmaking capacities are around 0.8 million metric tonnes (881,834 tons); its finished product capacities are around 2.9 million metric tonnes (3.2 million tons). In 2016, Division’s sales grew by 3 percent to 1.8 million metric tonnes (1.98 million tons) against the backdrop of high demand from key consumers.

(SOURCE: NLMK Group)