An investment of five million euros for the installation of a cutting line at the Columbus Stainless factory is approved.
Spanish stainless steelmaker Acerinox will invest €5 million ($6 million) in a new cutting and slitting line at its Columbus stainless steel mill in South Africa.
The new line will allow the Columbus mill, which has capacity for 500 000 tons per year, to increase exports by 3 000 tons per month, Acerinox said.
“This new equipment will also increase direct sales to our clients from the factory, improving service and reducing delivery times,” it added.
Acerinox will invest a further three million euros for replacing the melting shop refrigerated vault of electric furnace number 2 at its Acerinox Europa plant (Campo de Gibraltar, Algeciras). The replacement of the Acerinox Europa melting shop electric furnace vault will allow optimisation of production processes and improvements in costs and energy efficiency, thanks to the reduction in refractory and electrodes consumption and the increase in furnace availability time.
The installation of this new machinery is another step forward in caring for the environment as it allows reducing consumption of graphite electrodes by 10%, thereby reducing CO2 emissions from this section. Less volume of water will also be needed for it to work and maintenance operations will be provided improving productivity.
Acerinox Europa is one of the most advanced and efficient stainless steel factories in the world.
Columbus Stainless, part of the Acerinox Group of companies, is the only stainless steel mill in Africa. Based in Mpumalanga, South Africa, they produce austenitic stainless steel, ferritic stainless steel and duplex stainless in plate, sheet, coil and strip.
They manufacture the most popular grades of stainless steel, such as austenitic grades 304 stainless and 316, ferritic grades 430, 444 and 441, as well as 3CR12 – a corrosion resisting steel that they have developed for improved weld-ability and low cost applications. They also supply duplex stainless steel grades 2205 and 2304 in sheet and coil.
