Fort Wayne, Indiana-based steelmaker and metals recycling company Steel Dynamics, Inc. announced on Thursday that its board of directors has approved an expansion of its Engineered Bar Products Division in Pittsboro, Indiana. The proposed expansion will increase the steel mill's capacity to produce special-bar-quality (SBQ) steel bars and expand the mill's product offerings of high-quality small-diameter SBQ bars. The expansion is projected to increase the mill's production level by 52 percent-from 625,000 tons to 950,000 tons. With this additional capacity, the company's Engineered Bar Products Division would be among the largest single-site SBQ production facilities in North America.As long as all of the necessary requirements met in order to begin construction on the mill, Steel Dynamics plans to have the expansion finished in the second half of 2013 at an approximate cost of $76 million.
The principal modification to the mill is the planned addition of a second rolling line that will permit the concurrent production of small-diameter precision and larger-diameter bars. This expansion includes numerous enhancements to the facility's rolling mill for the production of precision sized bars, as well as improvements in material handling and staging. Steel Dynamics also plans to expand the mill's bar finishing capabilities for non-destructive testing of finished bars, potentially doubling its inspection capacity.