Steel Mills
Nucor Steel Gallatin Produces First Coil After Mill Upgrade by Danieli
Written by Laura Miller
July 27, 2022
Nucor Steel Gallatin has produced the first coil on its upgraded equipment after completion of the $650 million expansion project to lift the Ghent, Ky. mill’s annual capacity from 1.6 million tons to 3 million.
The first quality coil – an 18-mm thick strip, a new product for the Gallatin plant—was produced on June 24, according to equipment provider Danieli.
Danieli was responsible for modernization of the plant, and the company said this was the first modernization of a classical compact, thin-slab casting and rolling plant completely refigured into an ultra-modern QSP® Quality Strip Production Plant.
The upgraded plant will allow Nucor to expand production of AHSS, API line pipe, and a number of other value-added grades, in widths up to 1,870 mm (73.5 inches). Previously the mill could only produce slabs up to 68 inches wide.
As part of the mill’s upgrade, Danieli installed new downcoilers, roughing stands, intensive and laminar cooling, and a DC electric arc furnace – including a Q-melt package and a twin ladle furnace (with future provision for a vacuum degasser).
The Gallatin mill completed a planned outage to finish installation of the equipment in June. It will continue to ramp up over the course of the third quarter and should be capable of running at its nameplate capacity of 3 million tons per year by the end of the year, Nucor has said. The steelmaker previously estimated shipments from Gallatin’s new capacity to reach 500,000 tons this year.
Nucor is currently building a new tube mill at its mill in Gallatin with an investment of $164 million. The 250,000-tons-per-year HSS, mechanical tubing, and galvanized solar torque tube line is expected to be operational by mid-2023.
Nucor did not respond to SMU’s request for comment on production of the first coil as of Wednesday afternoon.
By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Laura Miller
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