On October 23, 2020, Nucor Corporation held the groundbreaking ceremony for the new plant at its Brandenburg site in Kentucky, U.S. For this project, SMS group is supplying a single-strand caster for ultra-wide and ultra-thick slabs. It will produce slabs with thicknesses of between 200 and 305 millimeters and widths of up to 3,150 millimeters. This means that Nucor will be operating one of the world's largest continuous casting plants. The vertical bending caster will be equipped with a host of quality-defining technological features, all of which meet Nucor's high standards. In addition, a customized strand guide, an ultra-fast cooling section, and a secondary cutting line will be supplied.

SMS group's scope of supply for the new heavy-plate complex also includes the whole reheating system for slabs and blooms, a heat treatment facility for heavy plate with a thickness of up to 356 millimeters, and a continuous heat treatment facility with MultiFlex-Quench^® for heavy plates that are 4.8 to 102 millimeters thick and up to 4,267 millimeters wide.

“We are proud to partner with SMS on our new steel plate mill. This is the largest capital investment project in our company’s history and when it is completed and operational, we’ll be one of only two companies that can produce essentially all of the plate sizes consumed in the U.S. today.” said Johnny Jacobs, Vice President & General Manager, Nucor Steel Brandenburg.

The SMS group congratulates Nucor on the groundbreaking ceremony and looks forward to continued good cooperation.

To give those attending the groundbreaking ceremony an idea of the scale of the new continuous slab caster, SMS group produced an animation film that was played during the festivities.

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