American ‘giant’ strikes multi-million-dollar deal with Sheffield manufacturer

Nucor, the largest steel producer and recycler in North America, has placed orders for ultra-large steel rolls with Sheffield Forgemasters for its brand-new plate rolling mill.

Sheffield Forgemasters will deliver three rolls weighing 147 tonnes each to Nucor’s Brandenburg Mill near Louisville, Kentucky, one of the world’s most advanced steel plate mills with the ability to produce 1.2 million tons annually.

The multi-million USD order is seen as a “valuable win” for the UK engineering specialist, which has a long history of supplying large plate-mill rolls to global customers and the rolls will be integral to the Brandenburg Mill’s capabilities.

Dan Millington, technical sales manager (Steel Processing) at Sheffield Forgemasters, commented: “This is a significant contract for Sheffield Forgemasters and marks the first time that we have manufactured large plate-mill rolls for Nucor.

“We are supplying to Nucor’s newest Plate Mill; Nucor Steel Brandenburg, which will produce more than one million tonnes of steel plate products each year, with extremely high rates of efficiency.

“Manufacturing rolls of this size is a highly technical process, requiring multiple forging operations through our 10,000-tonne press, controlled heat treatment to meet the customer requirement, as well as rough and finish machining. We are the only UK company with the capability to produce rolls of this size.

“Our efforts to secure work in new rolls markets have been successful to date and we expect to announce further rolls contracts in due course.”

Sheffield Forgemasters will first ship the Nucor components to Antwerp, from where they will cross the Atlantic to Baltimore before being taken by rail to Kentucky.

Located along the Ohio River near Louisville, the Brandenburg mill will produce cut-to-length, coiled, heat-treated, and discrete steel plates ranging from 60 to 168 inches wide, and in gauges from 3/16 of an inch to 14 inches.

Nucor Steel Brandenburg will be among only a few mills globally, and the only mill in the United States, capable of manufacturing at scale the heavy gauge plate used in monopile foundations for offshore wind towers.

Nucor, which is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, expects the plant will source a large proportion of raw materials locally and serve customers throughout the Midwest as well as complementing its existing plate mills in North Carolina, Alabama and Texas.

By Matthew Neville – Senior Correspondent, Bdaily

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