Steel producer IPSCO Inc. (Lisle, Ill.) has selected Mobile, Alabama as the location to build its new continuous plate heat treating operation.

Steel producer IPSCO Inc. (Lisle, Ill.; www.ipsco.com) has selected Mobile, Alabama as the location to build its new continuous plate heat treating operation. In addition, IPSCO has awarded a contract for the design and supply of equipment to LOI Inc. (Pittsburgh, Pa.; www.loi.com). The $45,000,000 facility will produce 170,000 tons per year of heat treated plate, quenched and tempered or normalized, ranging in thickness from 3/16 to 3 in. at widths up to 123 in. The 140,000 square foot facility will include a shot blast station, hot leveler, stenciler and shear, all of which will be fully automated. As part of the contract with LOI, process technology for the furnaces and the quench will be provided by LOI Thermprocess in Essen, Germany. The normalizing line is expected to start operations in the fourth quarter of 2005 and the quench and temper unit in the first quarter of 2006.