Castrip Process Up and Running at Nucor.

Business Editors

CHARLOTTE, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 24, 2002

Commissioning of the world's first commercial facility for strip casting of steel sheet products kicked off in May, and the first prime commercial material was shipped to Nucor's Vulcraft division early last week.

"We are very pleased with the progress that has been made since the first cast at Nucor Crawfordsville in early May," said Richard Wechsler, President of Castrip LLC. "The fact that Nucor has been able to sell prime, galvanized UCS (Ultra-thin Cast Strip) within two months of start-up is a tremendous statement about the technology and the team of people that has put it together."

Coil produced by the Castrip plant was pickled, edge trimmed, cold rolled and galvanized. Cast at 0.07" (1.7 mm) by 53" (1345 mm), the final product - following trimming and cold rolling - was 0.034" (0.9 mm) by 48.5" (1230 mm). The coil was processed into structural steel decking, a standard product for the Vulcraft facility, and sold in the market. According to Nucor, rollforming of the coil was successful and the deck product has been sold.

"We can't speak highly enough about the teamwork we've witnessed during construction, commissioning and early operations, and we've started active discussions with steelmakers worldwide about licensing the Castrip technology to them," Wechsler said.

"Over the coming weeks, the team of people from Nucor, BHP Steel, IHI and Siemens will be focused on improving product quality and moving to regular sequence casting. The first two-ladle sequence was completed last week, and Nucor's goal is to get to three-ladle sequences. They are routinely draining complete ladles, which represents about 100 minutes of uninterrupted casting. Within a few months, they will also get an opportunity to test the productivity of the plant around the clock. Nucor has been operating with two crews during the commissioning phase, and they are hiring two additional crews which will allow 24-7 operations."

Nucor Steel broke ground on the new Castrip facility in late February 2001, with construction of the plant completed in April this year. Nucor is the first licensee of the Castrip process.

Based in Charlotte, N.C., Castrip LLC (www.castrip.com) is a joint venture of Nucor Corporation, BHP Steel Ltd. of Australia and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) of Japan. The partnership was formed to market and license the intellectual property developed jointly by its three owners, related to the twin-roll casting of carbon and stainless steels. Castrip LLC currently holds more than 1,500 patents and patents pending related to strip casting.

CASTRIP(R) is a trademark of Castrip LLC.