Project Excellence Award for SDI line designed by Fives
Steel Dynamics, one of the largest US steel producers, received a renowned AIST Award for its continuous galvanizing line (CGL) supplied by Fives, an industrial engineering group.
Association of Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) Awards serve to recognize those who have improved the steelmaking process and developed technical breakthroughs and outstanding achievements in the steel industry.
Steel Dynamics (SDI) CGL #3 at the Columbus plant in Mississippi was honored with the AIST Project Excellence Award which recognizes the best practices of project management based on the following criteria: business success, technical success, safety performance, and project management success.
“This is a great award for SDI. We wanted to design a facility that was future-proof and could be flexible for a wide range of products. Fives offered an innovative package that guaranteed product flexibility and line capability. We are very satisfied with the productivity and metallurgical results,” says Barry Schneider, President and COO of Steel Dynamics.
Fives designed and supplied the award-winning CGL #3 to increase SDI’s production capacity and expand its product portfolio at the Columbus plant. The line has a capacity of 400,000 tons per year and is dedicated to producing unexposed automotive steel grades, as well as specialized grades for the construction, appliance, and automotive industries.
The scope of the project supply included entry & exit coil handling sections, a degreasing section, a horizontal annealing furnace, hot dip galvanizing and cooling equipment, a skin-pass mill and strip leveler, inspection, and metallurgical assistance for different steel grades and types of coating.
Strong partnership for first coil
The advanced line produced its first prime coil on schedule amidst challenging COVID conditions.
“Overcoming these challenges while ensuring the project’s success was possible thanks to our strong partnership with the SDI team. We achieved the first coil in just 18 months because our operational objectives were clear and totally aligned with SDI. They had a great team on site, and we were able to ramp up in record time,” says Guillaume Mehlman, President of Steel & Glass Division at Fives.