Acerinox, in its subsidiary, North American Stainless (Kentucky, USA) has started up the new No.4 AP production line. This line of annealing and pickling for hot rolled coils, has an annual production capacity of 1.2 million metric tons and is capable of processing coils between 1.5mm and 13mm thickness. This investment is included in the NAS expansion plan of USD 320 million. In September of 2008, it increased the melting shop capacity to 1.4 million metric tons with the start up of No.2 AOD converter. The new No.4 AP line will be followed by the construction of the No.5 Sendzimir Mill (ending first quarter 2009) and will increase the cold rolled annual capacity of NAS to 830,000 metric tons.