Fives, a global industrial engineering group, and JSW Dolvi Works, part of India’s leading steel producer JSW Steel, successfully discharged the first hot slab from a new reheating furnace in late March. JSW Steel contracted Fives to design and supply two reheating furnaces for its new hot-strip mill at Dolvi works in the state of Maharashtra. According to Fives, the furnaces both have the highest capacity installed in India at 450 metric tons per hour. They also feature high environmental performance and low fuel consumption. The first furnace was ignited in January 2021.

United States Steel Corp. expanded its commitment to sustainability by setting a goal targeting net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. To achieve its net-zero goal for 2050, U.S. Steel expects to leverage its growing fleet of electric-arc furnaces (EAF) coupled with technologies such as: direct-reduced iron; carbon-free energy sources; and carbon capture, sequestration and utilization. Achievement of the goal also depends on public-private collaboration across industries and global stakeholders to develop supportive breakthroughs, including access to commercially available carbon-neutral electricity sources.

Tenaris plans to restart activity at its two plants in Pennsylvania: the Koppel melt shop and Ambridge seamless pipe mill. The plant in Koppel – the company’s first domestic steel shop – is finalizing an investment announced in 2020 to upgrade its steel bar size capabilities while also incorporating additional improvements in safety and automation. Tenaris has since increased its investment to include the revamping of existing cranes used to feed the furnace with scrap metal and a new production management system to improve process control at the steel shop. The more than $15 million investment is projected to be completed in May with production to start up in June. 

The Shear Assisted Processing and Extrusion (ShAPETM) project shows the potential to increase throughput and reduce manufacturing costs and energy use for aluminum alloy 7075 extrusions. Aluminum alloy 7075 (AA7075) is a high-strength, low-weight metal alloy that can handle heavy mechanical stresses.

Zekelman Industries announced the completion of exterior building work on its new mill in Blytheville, Ark., constructed for its Atlas Tube division. Foundation work has begun, and the mill is scheduled to start rolling in September 2021. Located next to one of Atlas Tube’s existing mills, the company says the 515,000-square-foot facility will be the largest continuous electric resistance welding (ERW) mill in the world, rolling HSS from 8 to 22 inches square. Rounds will be available up to 28 inches OD and rectangles up to 34 x 10 inches, with wall thicknesses up to 1 inch.

Hard lessons learned from the 2020 pandemic taught us that we needed to rebuild and re-establish our U.S. supply-chain ecosystem. The systemic shock to our global supply chains left us with bottlenecks, shortages and an acute awareness of our overdependence on imports.

Primetals Technologies will supply an RH degasser, continuous slab casting machine and material-handling equipment to AM/NS Calvert for its new steel meltshop in Calvert, Ala. A 50-50 joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel Corp. (NSC), the facility will be capable of producing 1.5 million tons of slabs annually to feed its existing hot-strip mill. This expansion will give AM/NS Calvert full control of production quality and the flexibility to produce a range of high-quality steel grades for the automotive industry. Construction is expected to take two years.

The American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) said a new report by the Economic Policy Institute reaffirms that the steel tariffs put in place in 2018 have been effective in facilitating significant investments in new and upgraded mills, creating thousands of new jobs and protecting U.S. national security. The report, “Why Global Steel Surpluses Warrant U.S. Section 232 Import Measures,” also showed that continued global steel overcapacity fueled by foreign government subsidies and other trade-distorting policies and practices threatens additional harm to the American steel industry absent continuation of the tariffs.

Air Liquide and ArcelorMittal have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the objective of implementing solutions to produce low-carbon steel at ArcelorMittal’s steelmaking facilities in Dunkirk, France. The companies are joining forces to transform the steel production process through the development of solutions involving low-carbon hydrogen and CO₂-capture technologies. The project, which aims to contribute significantly to the decarbonization of the Dunkirk industrial basin, will reduce yearly CO₂ emissions from ArcelorMittal’s steelmaking facilities in Dunkirk by 2.85 million tons by 2030.

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG awarded Danieli Centro Combustion an order to supply two walking-beam furnaces for steel slabs for its Bruckhausen hot-rolling mill in Duisburg, Germany. The furnaces will achieve high production while reducing energy consumption and NOx emissions. They will also improve slab surface quality. They have a capacity of 380 tph with cold charging and up to 560 tph with hot charging. Start-up of the slab-reheating furnaces is scheduled for the beginning of 2024.