wiUSA December 2013

China’s General Steel Holdings Inc has begun a trial production run on a newly constructed1.2millionmetrictonadvanced continuous rebar rolling production line at its principal manufacturing facility, Shaanxi Longmen Iron and Steel Co Ltd. The company expects the new production line to reach full operation by the end of the year. The continuous rolling production line expands on the company's successful launch of a 900,000 metric ton line in July 2013. Longmen Joint Venture now has a total continuous rolling capacity of 4.3 metric tons, including 3.3 metric tons of rebar and one metric ton of high-speed wire. When the two newly constructed production lines reach their designed efficiency, thecompany expects to reduce overall production cost by approximately $24.5 million per year by eliminating intermediate transportation, re-heating, and outsourced-processing costs. Trial run for continuous rebar production line

Steel cord consolidation

Bridgestone Corp is to consolidate steel cord production in Japan at its Saga plant, so ending tire cord and bead wire production at its Kuroiso plant. The Kuroiso facility will close in late September 2014, affecting 355 employees. The decision to consolidate came despite a number of initiatives taken to help strengthen the competitiveness and overall profitability of the Kuroiso plant, whose daily capacities are listed as 135 metric tons of steel cord, 18 tons of hose wire and 85 tons of bead wire. Bridgestone lists the Saga plant’s daily capacities as 263 tons of steel cord, and two tons of cable bead wire, but did not say what it expects the plant’s capacities to be after the consolidation.

wiredInUSA - December 2013

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