EVRAZ North America broke ground on its $500mn expansion of the estimated 500,000nt capacity Rocky Mountain steel plant in Pueblo Colorado.
The expansion will entail 7,000nt of steel and 2,267mt of rebar, locally sourced, to build the half mile long rail facility that will employ about 800 construction workers, then 300 employees once complete.
The plant will produce 300-foot rail sections that will be processed to make quarter-mile long rails to be shipped throughout the US or exported to global destinations.
The expansion includes powering the steel mill by 1,800 solar farms that are being built at the plant and set for completion by the end of 2021.
The steel site takes in more than 1mn nt of ferrous scrap for recycling every year. Combined with solar energy to power the furnace and fuel the plant, lowered greenhouse gas emissions or green steelmaking will result.
The expansion is expected to be completed at the end of 2022 or by early 2023.
The overall plan has been in the works for about 10 years, with development first beginning Oct 2018. The company experienced some delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, then refreshed plans in Aug 2020.