Universal Stainless & Alloy Products Inc. has announced that it will invest USD 13 million in its Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, US melt shop over the next 15 months. The capital improvement will include major upgrades in equipment, automation and plant layout. They include an installation of a newly designed 50tn electric arc furnace shell and purchase of state-of-the-art equipment designed to automate certain recurring operating processes. Universal will also be upgrading the alloy addition equipment at the Argon-Oxygen Decarburization unit. There will be an addition of new ladle preheating equipment and the plant layout and material handling systems will be modified. There will also be an implementation of new melting and refining automation software. The capital improvement is expected to begin producing cost savings in the 2009 fourth quarter. The equipment and infrastructure spending will be completed by the end of 2009 and the automation investment will be completed by the middle of 2010.