In 1989, Nucor pioneered EAF thin-slab casting at our Crawfordsville, Indiana sheet mill. Since this breakthrough, we have become the market leader by continuing to invest in advanced sheet steel products and technologies.Today, Nucor operates six strategically located sheet mills in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky and South Carolina that utilize thin slab casters to produce flat-rolled steel for automotive, appliance, construction, pipe and tube and many other industrial and consumer applications. Our sheet mill capacity is approximately 12.1 million tons per year. We produce hot rolled, cold rolled, Castrip® ultra-thin cast steel (UCS), Surestride® floor plate, galvanized and galvannealed sheet.Our sheet mill network is both geographically diverse as well as strategically positioned near rail, highway and major seaports, ensuring secure access to products and efficient delivery timeframes throughout North America.
This plant was "the world's first commercial installation for Ultra-Thin Cast Strip (L)CS production via twin roll casting, which reduces energy consumption and environmental impact." [gem] I think this plant has had two firsts with respect to producing sheet steel coils. When it was built in 1989, it pioneered running the output of the thin-slab caster into the hot rolling mill. They call their Ultra-Then Cast Strip production their Castrip facility and that was introduced in 2002. [ResearchGate] From what I can tell, the output of the continuous caster is so thin that it barely needs any rolling done to it.
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| Nucor-history [The adjective "thin-slab" is important when claiming that this 1989 mini-mill was the first. Nucor opened their first mini mill in 1969 in Darlington, South Carolina. Castrip was added to Crawfordsville in 2002. "The process casts molten steel directly into sheet steel at or near its final thickness, eliminating the need for large hot and cold rolled reductions. Compared to the casting and rolling process of an integrated steelmaking facility, the Castrip process consumes about 95 percent less energy and emits less than one-tenth the greenhouse gases."] |
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I switched to the road map and zoomed out so that we can see that it connects to two railroads. On the left is CSX/Monon. On the upper-right is (CSX+NS+Amtrak)/BigFour/Peoria & Eastern.
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On Feb 1, 2022, Nucor announced that it is planning a $290m project to expand production in Crawfordsville that would add 80 jobs to its current 770 workers. [WISHtv] The expansion would add "a construction grade continuous galvanizing line and prepaint line." [AreaDevelopment]
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| John Groves posted All of my years of collected information on Nucor Crawfordsville says the world's first flat products mini mill was started up in 1989 with two EAFs, one thin slab caster and a compact 4-stand hot strip mill. Soon after the technology was fully proven, Nucor added a second thin slab caster (1994) and two more rolling stands for the HSM (1992 & 1995). This lifted the casting and HSM capacity to around 2 million net tons per annum. A thin strip caster was added in 2002, capacity about 0.5 Mtpa. The original EAFs already had surplus capacity HOWEVER, the 2021 AIST Directory of Iron and Steel Plants (the Black Book) has the following data for Nucor Crawfordsville: 2 EAF x 130t, 2.540 Mtpa (million net tons per annum) capacity. ONE thin slab caster, 1.000 Mtpa One thin strip caster, 0.540 Mtpa Two tunnel furnaces One 6-stand HSM, 2.100 Mtpa SO, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE SECOND THIN SLAB CASTER? Either Nucor shut it down, or more likely, is it a misprint in the 2021 Directory? Do we have any members of this group who are aware of the current operations at Crawfordsville? Are they still operating TWO thin slab casters, or restructured back to only ONE thin slab caster and running the HSM at 50% capacity (without telling anyone)? UPDATE: Thanks to all who have contributed. After input from multiple sources I am now pleased to accept that the Directory entries for both Crawfordsville and Blytheville are misprints. Both plants are still operating TWO CSP thin slab casters close coupled to the HSM. I am keen to get the data exactly right because I am preparing for posting here several detailed reports, including… 1) A detailed listing of the facilities and capacities for all the flat products mini mills in USA, ten existing and two announced. 2) A similar listing for the facilities and capacities for the remaining eight integrated flat products plants. 3) A similar listing for the five independent full-sized hot strip mill plants, using full thickness slabs (e.g. HSMs based on imported slabs, or fed by EAF/thick slab caster combination). 4) A detailed listing of the full line-up of Nucor’s 35 Mtpa of mini mills, including five flat products mills and one more to be added by 2025 (total 17 Mtpa), four plate mini mills (including one under construction – total 4.3 Mtpa), two structural beam mini mills (one by Nucor and one JV Nucor-Yamato, total 3.4 Mtpa)) and 14 bar and SBQ mini mills (10 Mtpa). 5) A detailed listing of SDI’s seven mini mills, total capacity 13.5 Mtpa (including three flat products mini mills, one for structural and rails, and three for bar and SBQ. 6) A detailed history of the ten mini mills currently operating in USA and their unique linkages to Ken Iverson of Nucor. In brief, Iverson established three as Nucor-owned mills, Nucor (after Iverson was stunningly removed in a boardroom coup) purchased two failed ventures which had been built in the late-1990s by independent JVs (including integrated steel firms), and four mills built by Iverson protégés who either left Nucor for greener pastures (after not getting the promotions they expected for making Crawfordsville so successful) or were pushed out in a boardroom coup. That makes a total of nine of the 10 existing mills either built by Nucor, purchased by Nucor or established by ex-Nucor high-flyers. The only mill with zero Nucor linkage is NS BlueScope at Delta, OH, owned 100% by BlueScope Steel of Australia. (photo of original four stands of the Crawfordsville hot strip mill from SMS brochure) [There are a lot of comments, but the bottom line was that "Black Book Directory was in error about the missing thin slab casters at Crawfordville and Blytheville."] |
John Groves commented on a post in response to someone who started here in Apr 1990 (the first bar was run in Jun of 89):
Wow, you have seen almost all of two of the most significant developments in steel industry history.One is the introduction and fine-tuning of the revolutionary technology of thin slab casting close-coupled with compact hot strip rolling. This led over the last 30 years to establishment of ten flat products mini mills in USA and the decline and disappearance of so many integrated steel mills. With a few more soon to follow in the next few years.The second huge piece of history was the revolution in steel industry culture and management introduced by Ken Iverson, which set Nucor up for the awesome growth which still continues today.What were your key activities in those 30 exciting years at Nucor?And did you have and direct involvements with Ken Iverson and John Correnti?Cindy Billings: John Groves I was low on the totem pole. I was a shift/dayturn electrician in the Hot Mill during my 30 years. I don’t think I realized the significance until we started getting company in the playing field. 😃 Mr. Iverson was well respected and admired by one and all for taking a chance and investing in the corn fields of Indiana. The facility has been great for our community and it definitely changed my life. I am blessed!
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