Aperam Stainless Europe
Aperam's stainless facilities in Europe produce the full range of our stainless steel products. Production was approximately 1.1 million tonnes of crude steel in 2011. The facilities comprise two electric arc furnace meltshops in Belgium, located in Genk and Châtelet. The Genk facility includes two electric arc furnaces, vacuum and argon-oxygen decarburizing facilities, ladle refining metallurgy and a slab continuous caster and slab grinders. It also includes a cold rolling mill facility. The Châtelet facility is an integrated facility with a meltshop and a hot rolling mill. The Châtelet meltshop includes an electric arc furnace, argon-oxygen decarburizing equipment, ladle furnaces refining metallurgy, a slab continuous caster and slab grinders.
Cold rolling facilities in Europe consist of three cold rolling mill plants, located in Belgium (Genk) and France (Gueugnon and Isbergues). All three plants include annealing and pickling lines (with shot blasting and pickling equipment), cold rolling mills, bright annealing lines (in Gueugnon and Genk), skin-pass and finishing operations equipment. The Isbergues plant also includes a DRAP (Direct Roll Anneal and Pickle) line. The Genk plant is focused on austenitic steel products, the Gueugnon plant on ferritic products and the Isbergues plant on products dedicated to the automotive market (mainly ferritic steels) and industrial market (mainly austenitic steels). Recyco, an electric arc furnace recycling unit which recycles dust and slugs to retrieve nickel and chromium, is located at the Isbergues facility.