The SMS group has been awarded a contract by Highbar LLC for the supply of a new mini steel mill for the production of reinforcing steel to be built near Osceola, Arkansas. With the help of the new plant, Highbar LLC will be able to produce reinforcing steel competitively and in an environmentally friendly way. To this end, Highbar announced that it has contracted SMS for the supply of a total of two additional reinforcing steel plants.
"SMS has played a critical role in the past - and will continue to play a critical role in the future - for the global steel industry for further efficiencies, continuous quality improvements and higher environmental sustainability. I am sure that with the new rebar plant supplied by SMS, we, my partners and I, will continue our success story in metal recycling and steelmaking. We have been very successful in relying on SMS technology to build our plants, which are among the most modern in the world," says Dave Stickler, CEO of Highbar.
SMS group and the founders of Highbar have been working together for almost three decades now, and in that time they have completed numerous successful projects together.
"The partnership between our two companies is a perfect combination of technology and talent. It's how we consistently succeed in developing outstanding solutions for our industry," said Jens Oliver Haupt, Chief Sales Officer at SMS group Inc.
Future viability of the production facilities
Highbar LLC's new mini-steel mill will use Continuous Minimill Technology CMT® from SMS. This is a low-emission and energy-efficient steelmaking technology in which the liquid steel is fed to a high-speed continuous caster and the cast billets are safely inserted, in a continuous process, directly into the mill. Additional efficiency gains are achieved by electric arc furnace technology. The AURA DC (Advanced Unit Rectifier Assembly) rectifier technology developed by the SMS group and the All-Charge continuous charging system will be used. The plant will have a high-speed continuous caster supplied by SMS Concast. The induction balancing furnace, which connects to the rolling mill, will be supplied by SMS Elotherm. The rolling mill will consist of fourteen standless stands and a MEERdrive® high-speed finishing block with eight passes. In addition, the thermomechanical rolling process for reinforcing steel (TMbaR®) developed by the SMS group will be integrated into the rolling mill. The advantages of digitalization are represented by the equipment of Industry 4.0 digitalization solutions and AI-controlled processes.
The wide-ranging equipment ensures the future viability of the production facilities. These are designed so that no natural gas needs to be used during the production process, enabling an extremely small CO2 footprint while halving emissions.
Construction to start in 2023
Construction of the project is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2023, with twenty-two months from the start of the construction phase to commissioning. SMS group Inc. is responsible for the sales of new plants as well as retrofits and plant upgrades for metal companies in the North American market. The company is also a leading global provider of maintenance and repair services in the steel and non-ferrous metals industries.
