Sheffield steelmaker Forgemasters lands huge American order set to keep plant busy for a year

The Brightside steelmaker will produce three 147-tonne ’ultra-large steel rolls’ for a new mill near Louisville, Kentucky. They will be created in a process which will employ all departments including the melt shop where 300 tonne ingots will be cast. They will go into the 10,000-tonne press in the forge before being finished in the machine shop, with testing and heat treatment along the way.

Customer Nucor, the largest steel producer and recycler in North America, will use the rolls like a clothes mangle to squash out steel plates used in bridges, ships and oil rigs. The deal will help safeguard jobs at Forgemasters which employs more than 600, bosses say.

Dan Millington, technical sales manager (steel processing), said: “Manufacturing rolls of this size is a highly technical process, requiring multiple forging operations through our 10,000-tonne press, controlled heat treatment to meet the customer requirement, as well as rough and finish machining. We are the only UK company with the capability to produce rolls of this size. Our efforts to secure work in new rolls markets have been successful to date and we expect to announce further rolls contracts in due course.”

Forgemasters can produce some of the largest steel products in the world from castings of up to 350 tonnes and forgings of up to 200 tonnes. The firm was bought by the Ministry of Defence in 2021 which says it intends to invest up to £400m over 10 years.