Danieli, Italy, announces that it has been selected to supply equipment for Nucor Corporation and its new greenfield plate steel mill complex in Brandenburg, Kentucky. Danieli will supply the new electric arc furnace melt shop and plate mill/Steckel mill, as well as an electrical and automation package provided by Danieli Automation, at a total cost of approximately $330 million.
Nucor will invest approximately $1.35 billion to build the entire mill, which will be capable of producing 1.2 million net tons per year of steel plate products. The selected location on the Ohio River will give Nucor logistical advantages in the heart of the largest steel plate consuming region in the United States. Nucor currently operates plate mills in North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas.
The EAF will be a full platform design with an EBT tapping system, equipped with all modern mechatronic devices to improve the performance and the safety of the EAF, such as: Q-Melt and Zero Man Turn Around. Danieli will also supply secondary metallurgy equipment, including a twin station LMF and a twin station VTD equipped with mechanical pumps. Both units will be equipped with the latest automation and process equipment, to ensure precise chemistry and temperature control, while minimizing transformation costs.
The plate/Steckel mill will be equipped with two stands: a roughing mill and a Steckel mill, where the roughing mill will also be designed for the rolling of 36-inch ingots. The complete design of the plate mill will be optimized for the production of thermo-mechanical rolled plates, production of API grades, and high hardness wear-resistant plates up to a rolled width of 160 inches and coils up to a rolled width of 125 inches.
Rolled plates will then move to the latest EVO 5 hot leveler, which is designed for two different types of cassettes and a plate finishing and shearing line for the handling and cutting of 250-ft mother plates.
Final products will be plates and heavy plates in a thickness ranging from 3/16 of an inch up to 14 inches, and coils from 3/16 up to 1 inch. When operational, the new plate mill will capable of producing 97% of plate products demanded in the U.S. market. The first plate is expected to be rolled in 2022.
