Finlandâs Outokumpu wants to increase production on its single 130tn electric arc furnace in England by 54%, which would bring the unit to full capacity, a company executive told SteelWEEK. The Sheffield-based EAF is now producing about 330,000t/y of crude steel. At full capacity, it could produce about 500,000t/y, the executive said during the British Stainless Steel Associationâs annual luncheon. The company is also planning to make investments to improve the quality of stainless steel produced at Sheffield. Although the executive declined to say what the necessary investments would be or how much they would cost, he labelled them as âperipheral.â? Sheffield is now producing about 300,000t/y of semi-finished stainless steel products, half of which is to make billets in 127×127-150x150mm dimensions, as well as blooms. The other half is for slabs in 1000-1600mm widths and 150-800mm heights. Outokumpu rolls only about 40,000t/y of the billet into drawing quality wire rod at Sheffield, which goes for exports. The remaining billets and all slabs go either to Scandinavia for rolling or for export. Meanwhile, Outokumpu is completing at its Sheffield service centre an investment into a transverse winder, which will be able create continuous coils of up to 7km for consumers. Coil will come from Scandinavia and will go mainly to the UK’s building and construction sectors as well as to some automotive customers.
