ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada, Longueuil, Quebec, has inaugurated a new $20 million finishing line at its bar mill, to increase the facility’s annual rolling capacity from 400,000 to 500,000 metric tons. It will also now be able to manufacture new value-added steel products, including angles, for local and international markets.
“Our new finishing line has been built to better respond to the needs of our clients and support the company’s development over the next few years. The project is part of our growth strategy to maximize the profitability of our steel,” said Sujit Sanyal, President and CEO, ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada. “We are reaffirming our leadership in the steel and mining industry in North America as an integrated company: from mining, to steel, to customers.”
Local suppliers and contractors played a major role in the project, with nearly 100% of the equipment, products, and services coming from Québec, excluding the main equipment, which was manufactured in Europe.
This investment, which maintains some 200 bar mill jobs, is part of ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada’s modernization program, which has seen nearly $225 million invested since 2008. In operation since 1974, the Longueuil plant is one of the cornerstones of the company’s rolling capacity expansion plan between now and 2020.
Steel billets from ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada’s two Contrecoeur steelworks, cast from recycled scrap iron and iron ore extracted on Québec’s North Shore, are processed in the company’s rolling mills. The Longueuil facility manufactures special-grade and merchant bars, reinforcing steel (rebar), and various other semi-finished steel products for customers in Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
The bar mill is the world’s largest supplier of steel in leaf springs for light and heavy trucks of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers. Longueuil steel is found in the new Champlain Bridge, the new Highway 30, and the Bell Centre. The bar mill is also a major supplier of cathode bars for Québec aluminum smelters.
The new equipment will be central to the safe and reliable production of new steel products for the construction of electric pylons and building structures. The upgraded finishing line will also have a direct impact on packaging and delivery performance.
In 2013, the bar mill benefited from a major upgrade with the installation of a new $18 million heating furnace. This project improved the bar mill’s efficiency while reducing its energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
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