Castrip has signed a license agreement with a yet-to-be-named North American steelmaker to build and operate a plant utilising the Castrip thin-strip casting process. The new casting facility will have the capability to produce 500,000 tons of thin-gauge, high-strength sheet steel in stainless steel and carbon steel for local manufacturing markets. Start-up of the new Castrip facility is expected in early 2016.
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Castrip is a joint venture of Nucor Corporation, BlueScope Steel of Australia and IHI Corporation of Japan. The partnership was formed to market and license the intellectual property related to twin-roll casting, which was developed jointly by the three owners. The process equipment and technical services for the new facility will be provided by a consortium comprised of Siemens Metals Technologies, IHI and Castrip. IHI and Siemens are licensed exclusively by Castrip to provide core equipment for Castrip facilities. The new twin roll casting and rolling plant will produce ultra-thin cast strip (UCS) coils up to 1680mm wide, with a gauge ranging between 0.8mm–1.8mm.