ThyssenKrupp will delay the opening of its stainless steel operation in Calvert, Ala., for about a year until October 2010, stalling construction spending in an effort to save money. No delays are planned for the larger carbon-steel unit on the same site. That facility should begin processing steel in March 2010. According to ThyssenKrupp, carbon steel will be more than 70% of the total output at the $4.6 billion facility. The stainless unit will delay hiring the remainder of its 900-person workforce for up to a year, but it will not lay off any of the 177 existing employees. The carbon-steel unit, which employs 186 people, has already spent or committed $2.5 billion of its $3.2 billion budget. It will continue hiring.
One reason the carbon-steel operation is still on track is the fact it will be receiving raw steel slabs from ThyssenKrupp’s Brazilian complex, which is set to open later this year. Back in May 2007, ThyssenKrupp announced that it had chosen Alabama over Louisiana as the site of the steelmaking facility. The stainless unit plans to melt and cast 1 million metric tons of stainless each year.