Mittal Steel plans on spending $26 million in new construction and upgrades at Indiana Harbor Works and Burns Harbor (Indiana) in 2007. Mittal will spend $11 million to upgrade the annealing furnaces at Burns Harbor. The improvements will allow the former Bethlehem Steel facility to produce the same form of high-grade steel pioneered by the former Inland Steel in the 1990s. The lightweight, high-strength steel is used in the roll cages and other safety features in the auto industry. Mittal also plans to spend $15 million to add a temper mill to its galvanize line at Indiana Harbor.
Both projects are expected to begin and finish sometime in 2007. These improvements are part of $58 million in construction projects Mittal has planned for its U.S. plants in 2007, including $30 million in improvements to the blast furnaces at its Cleveland, Ohio, facility.