In May 2020, the housings of SDI’s cold rolling mill arrive at the Sinton site. The data sheet for the finished mill housings makes impressive reading: pure steel in a U-shape with a length of 11.5 meters, a width of 4.6 meters and a height of 1.2 meters. Weight: 160 tons each.

The mill housings were manufactured and machined at SMS group’s German workshops and start their journey to the US by heavy-duty transporter. The loaded trailers are equipped with 160 tires and 20 axles. It takes two powerful tractors, each with over 600 hp, to set them in motion. As it sets off, the heavy-duty transporter is 54 meters long and weighs a total of 310 tons. The mill housings are first taken to the docks in Krefeld. There are were loaded onto an inland waterway vessel and shipped to Antwerp. The Belgian seaport is the starting point for a journey of around four weeks across the Atlantic.

On board the deep-sea freighter BBC Destiny, the SMS group delivery reaches Corpus Christi, a port city in Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, by mid-May. The cargo comprise a total of six mill housings and 22 crates with a total weight of around 900 tons. Upon arrival in Texas, a distance of 50 kilometers has to be covered on land to the future production site in Sinton. Once more, this stretch is covered by a heavy-duty transporter.

Roger Smith, Executive Project Director SDI at SMS group, is very pleased when he saw the mill housings roll in: