HYUNDAI-POSCO Louisiana Steel LLC (HPLS) awarded SMS group a contract to supply rolling mills and related equipment for its new greenfield steel plant in Donaldsonville, Louisiana, USA.
HPLS is a joint venture comprising Hyundai Steel, POSCO, Hyundai Motor Company, and Kia. The new steel plant is scheduled to start operations in 2029 with total production capacity of 2.8 mln tons of steel products annually.
The order includes a hot strip mill (HSM), a pickling line tandem cold mill (PL/TCM), an acid regeneration plant (ARP), and logistics solutions supplied by AMOVA. According to SMS group, the facilities are designed to produce high-grade automotive steel products.
The hot strip mill will produce up to 2.8 mln tons of hot-rolled steel annually and will include automation and process control systems aimed at improving operational efficiency and product quality. The mill will be capable of producing strip thicknesses ranging from 1.2 mm to 25.4 mm and widths up to 1,900 mm.
The pickling line tandem cold mill will have annual production capacity of nearly 2 mln tons of cold-rolled steel, while also allowing production of around 112,000 tons of pickled and oiled hot-rolled coils annually. The line will produce strip widths up to 1,850 mm and cold-rolled thicknesses between 0.40 mm and 3.50 mm.
SMS group stated that the integrated acid regeneration plant will recycle hydrochloric acid used in the pickling process, reducing wastewater emissions and improving operational efficiency.