Lotte Aluminium Materials USA LLC will invest $238.7 million to build an aluminum foil manufacturing operation in Elizabethtown, Ky. The facility, which will create 122 full-time jobs, is expected to begin operation in 2025. The joint venture between Lotte Chemical and Lotte Aluminium will annually produce 36,000 tons of cathode foil, a type of ultra-thin aluminum foil that is a core material used in electric-vehicle (EV) batteries. Cathode foil is one of the four major components of lithium-ion batteries. It supports the cathode active material that determines the capacity and voltage of the secondary battery and, at the same time, serves as a passage for electrons.

France’s Obut has been producing steel balls weighing around 700 grams each for popular sport Pétanque since 1955. In an effort to improve production of boule balls at its headquarters in Saint-Bonnet-Le-Château, the company ordered a 1,300-ton forging press from Farina. The forging press replaces two lines with a press force of 600 and 800 tons respectively, which are becoming obsolete. The future line, which also includes a transfer and a furnace, will form a half shell every 2 seconds. The starting material for the boule balls, which have a diameter of just over 2.75 inches (7 cm), are steel rods cut into sections that a press first forms into discs and then into half shells. These are then welded together, machined and polished to a mirror finish.

Nucor Corp. will add a new melt shop at its bar mill in Kingman, Ariz. The $100 million facility will have the capacity to produce 600,000 tons annually and create approximately 140 new full-time jobs. Construction is expected to take two years pending permit and regulatory approvals. Nucor announced its intention to build a new melt shop at one of its existing bar mills in the western United States in September 2021. Nucor Steel Kingman is the ideal location for this project because it is a rolling mill that converts steel billets into coiled wire rod and rebar but lacks a melt shop.

The year-over-year U.S. inflation rate through February 2022 hit a 40-year high of 7.9%, eroding purchasing power especially for gas, food and rent.

ArcelorMittal signed an agreement with the shareholders of Companhia Siderúrgica do Pecém (CSP) to acquire CSP for approximately $2.2 billion. CSP produces high-quality slab at its state-of-the-art steel facility in the state of Ceará in northeast Brazil, which was commissioned in 2016. It operates a blast furnace with an annual capacity of 3 million metric tons. The transaction is expected to close by late 2022.

Steel Dynamics Inc. announced that its Board of Directors authorized the company to construct and operate a 650,000-metric-ton low-carbon, recycled aluminum flat-rolled mill, with two supporting satellite recycled-aluminum slab centers. The capital investment is estimated to be $2.2 billion for the three facilities, and commercial production is planned to begin in the first quarter 2025. The facility will utilize a significant amount of aluminum scrap in its production process supported by the company’s metals recycling platform, which Steel Dynamics says is the largest nonferrous metals recycler in North America.

Alcoa Corp. announced that construction will soon begin on a project to increase the casting capabilities at its Deschambault smelter in Canada to include standard ingots. The new casting equipment will be constructed in an existing building, with the project scheduled to be fully complete in the first quarter of 2023. The output from the approximately $8 million return-seeking capital investment will complement the site’s two existing vertical casting pits, which exclusively cast T-bar ingots.

ArcelorMittal completed the acquisition of an 80% shareholding in voestalpine’s hot briquetted iron (HBI) plant located near Corpus Christi, Texas. The acquisition, announced in April 2022, values the Corpus Christi operations at $1 billion. The facility is one of the largest of its kind in the world. It has an annual capacity of 2 million metric tons of HBI, which is a premium, compacted form of direct reduced iron (DRI) developed to overcome issues associated with shipping and handling DRI. The transaction enhances ArcelorMittal’s ability to produce the high-quality input materials required for low-carbon emissions steelmaking and reinforces the company’s position as a world leader in DRI production.

Tenova and SteelAsia Manufacturing Corp. signed a deal for the delivery of Consteel Evolution, Tenova’s low-impact technology for steel manufacturing. It will be the first of its kind in the Philippines and will be installed in SteelAsia’s new melt shop in Lemery, Batangas, in 2024. Tenova’s scope of supply includes an electric-arc furnace (EAF), secondary metallurgy station, billet caster, fume treatment plant (FTP), material-handling systems and all engineering services. The new Consteel Evolution melt shop will recycle local scrap metal to produce high-grade billets for steel sections.

Steel Dynamics Inc. announced the creation of a strategic joint venture with Aymium, a producer of renewable biocarbon products. Steel Dynamics owns 55% of the joint venture, which will operate under the name SDI Biocarbon Solutions, and Aymium owns the remaining 45%. Initial plans for the joint venture include the construction and operation of a biocarbon production facility to supply Steel Dynamics’ electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel mills with a renewable alternative to fossil-fuel carbon using Aymium’s patented technology. The initial facility’s production capability is expected to be more than 160,000 metric tons per year, for an estimated capital investment of $125-$150 million. The facility is planned to begin operation in late 2023.