Steel Mills

AK Steel Receives $1.8 Million Award from Department of Energy
Written by Sandy Williams
May 20, 2017
WEST CHESTER, OH–(Marketwired – May 17, 2017) – AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) announced today that it has accepted an award of up to $1.8 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Advanced Manufacturing Office’s Next Generation Electric Machines (NGEM) program to develop the next generation of advanced, non-oriented electrical steels (NOES) for motors used in a wide variety of industrial and automotive applications, including hybrid electric vehicles.
The three-year project will be conducted in collaboration with the DOE, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center, and Regal Beloit Corporation, a leading manufacturer of electric motors and motion control products. The objective of the project is to develop an innovative motor design with high-alloy NOES that will achieve an efficiency improvement of more than 30% when compared to existing motor designs with NOES products.
“We are honored to have been selected by the Energy Department for this initiative to push the boundaries of electrical steel technology,” said Roger Newport, Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel. “Product and process innovation is a hallmark of our company, and we look forward to collaborating with some of the brightest minds in the industry to take electric motor performance to the next level.”
AK Steel invented electrical steels over 100 years ago, and today remains one of the leading worldwide producers of this highly-specialized product. These steels include both NOES for electric generators and motors, as well as grain-oriented electrical steels for power and distribution transformers.
While DOE’s NGEM program targets a vast array of industrial motors, pumps, and generators, hybrid electric vehicles (H/EVs) represent the fastest growing market for NOES. Many of the motors used in H/EVs being sold in the U.S. today are imported from foreign suppliers, but a trend toward local sourcing and manufacturing is underway.
“For the past several years, we have been working closely with several worldwide leaders in the development of hybrid electric vehicles,” said Eric Petersen, Vice President Research and Innovation, AK Steel. “The reaction to prototype samples of our DI-MAX® HF-10X NOES product has been outstanding, and we are currently providing these OEMs with additional material for qualification. The upcoming DOE NGEM project will build upon this strong foundation, allowing for the most efficient motor designs available in the world.”

Sandy Williams
Read more from Sandy WilliamsLatest in Steel Mills

BREAKING NEWS: Cliffs plans to idle three mills, cut 950 jobs on ‘insufficient demand and pricing’
Cleveland-Cliffs plans to indefinitely idle its steel mill in Riverdale, Ill., as well as mills in Conshohocken, Pa., and Steelton, Pa. The Cleveland-based steelmaker said all three facilities would be idled on or around June 30. Approximately 950 jobs will be impacted, the company said.

CRU: Usiminas may reduce capex unless government strengthens protection
“The lack of effective measures to create fair competition, amid a surge in subsidized imports, is the main threat to the sustainability of Brazil’s steel industry and its value chain,” CEO Marcelo Chara said.

USS swings to loss in first quarter on N. American flat-rolled segment woes
U.S. Steel CEO praised the company’s resilience, “despite the seasonally low results driven by annual mining logistics constraints in our North American Flat-Rolled segment and lagging spot prices.”

Nucor gives updates on new capacity coming online
Nucor said several of its capital projects will start operations within the next year and provided an update on them.

Algoma swings to loss on ‘market challenges’ and ‘tariff uncertainties’
Canada’s Algoma Steel swung to a loss in the first quarter amid "market challenges," and the company now expects first steel production from its first EAF in the second quarter.