Media: Columbus Commercial Dispatch
Date of Publication: October 24, 2007
Title: Mill achieves production in less than two years
Inside the 1,190,000-square-foot plant, the earth shook with the pulse of giant furnaces processing 3,000-degree, molten orange metal. And America's next-generation steel mill fully arrived in Lowndes County.
SeverCorr CEO John Correnti, along with Gov. Haley Barbour and SeverStal CEO Alexey Mordashov joined local and state elected officials, community and business leaders and SeverCorr partners Tuesday in celebrating the mill's reaching production."
Also set to benefit: The U.S.
Link to complete article
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| October 2007 |
SeverCorr: A Match Made in Mississippi (Metal Center News)
While SeverCorr’s attempt to produce automotive-grade steel at its new minimill in the South is groundbreaking, its relationship with on-site service center partners Heidtman Steel Products and New Process Steel is equally pioneering.
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October 24, 2007 |
Big Day for SeverCorr (Columbus Cmmercial Dispatch)
SeverCorr CEO John Correnti, along with Gov. Haley Barbour and SeverStal CEO Alexey Mordashev joined local and state elected officials, community and business leaders and SeverCorr partners Tuesday in celebrating the mill's reaching production less than two years from start of construction.
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October 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr's operational status celebrated (Starkville Daily News)
A little more than two years ago, the prairie ground just east of Golden Triangle Regional Airport sat largely empty. Today, a start up steel mini mill known as SeverCorr is making rolled steel from scrap for a variety of applications — including the automotive industry — and officials are developing plans for a $500 million expansion to add as many as 150 employees to the projected initial hire of 450 employees.
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October 24, 2007 |
Mexico prominent in long-term plans for new SeverCorr steel mill (Platts Steel Markets Daily)
US steel producer SeverCorr expects to do as much as one-fifth of its ongoing business with customers in Mexico, a company executive told Platts Tuesday as the new mill marked two years since its ground-breaking.
"Mexico is a long-term market for us. It will be about 15%-20% of what we
do," said Mike Wagner, executive VP and chief commercial officer.
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October 24, 2007 |
Production Underway at SeverCorr (Metal Producing and Processing)
After an initial $880 million investment, the SeverCorr flat steel plant in Lowndes County, MS began production on Oct. 22. The first phase took 22 months, during which time two downstream processors - Heidtman Steel and New Process Steel - committed to building plants nearby in the area known as the Golden Triangle.
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October 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr steel mill’s completion celebrated (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
SeverCorr executives, state and local officials and workers celebrated the completion of the facility’s $880 million first phase in a ceremony today. All the mill’s major operations have been running since late August, but SeverCorr continues to add workers, heading toward a 450-people and three-shift, 24-hour production.
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October 24, 2007 |
Plant boosts Golden Triangle (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
With the first $880 million phase of the plant complete and all major steelmaking operations running, SeverCorr employs 361 directly and will be responsible for creating another 476 indirect jobs. Two downstream processors, Heidtman Steel and New Process Steel, have committed to building plants nearby. The two will bring a combined 125 jobs to the Golden Triangle. A total of $251.5 million in direct investment is expected to be created by companies in conjunction with SeverCorr, said Brenda Lathan, vice president for economic development at the Columbus-Lowndes Development Link.
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September 24, 2007 |
More world-class companies are choosing to locate in Mississippi (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
Activity in the Golden Triangle has been noteworthy with EADS-North America making helicopters for the military and other agencies, Aurora Flight Sciences building unmanned aerial vehicles, and SeverCorr beginning operations as one of the nation's premier steel mills.
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| September 20, 2007 |
Russia's Steel Wheels Roll Into America (Business Week)
SeverStal is also an 80% shareholder in SeverCorr, an $800 million mill that's rising out of farm fields in Columbus, Miss. When that plant is fully operational, SeverStal's American production will nearly double, to 5.8 million tons annually, making the company one of the top five integrated steel producers in the U.S.
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| August 29, 2007 |
SeverCorr begins producing its own hot-rolled steel coils (Platts Steel Markets Daily)
Emerging US steelmaker SeverCorr has begun to produce its own hot-rolled coils with the start-up last week of the melt shop, caster and hot mill at its nearly completed mill in Columbus, Mississippi.
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| August 14, 2007 |
Steel's Latest Hot Spot: The U.S. (The Wall Street Journal)
The global steel industry is on the hunt for homes for a new generation of steel mills. Low-cost places like
Ukraine, Russia, Brazil and India stand to benefit from investments to satisfy the world's growing appetite for
steel.
Also set to benefit: The U.S.
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| August 2, 2007 |
Governor pushes workforce training in visit to EMCC (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
Gov. Haley Barbour praised EMCC's efforts in workforce development and job training, speaking to a crowd of about 100, comprised largely of laid-off former Sara Lee workers who are being trained at EMCC to work in other industries. Before taking the podium, Barbour was introduced to a pair of men who took advantage of EMCC's training after losing their jobs at the former West Point Sara Lee plant and now make more money working at SeverCorr.
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| August 2, 2007 |
Barbour says Toyota won't hurt Nissan (Madison County Journal)
Gov. Haley Barbour cited the SeverCorr steel mill in Columbus as a prime example of careful investment of economic developmen funds. Of an $885 million investment, Barbour said, Mississippi taxpayers are only responsible for about $35 million
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| July 12, 2007 |
Columbus Scrap Materials delivers first scrap load to SeverCorr (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
Another production milestone was reached at SeverCorr Wednesday, as the steel mill received its first 20-ton shipment of scrap materials for processing from local provider Columbus Scrap Material Inc.
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| June 23, 2007 |
New restaurant could be first salvo in huge retail and shopping boom (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
A major retail development could be part of a wave of retail expansion following the wake of Lowndes County's recent industrial successes. With SeverCorr making steel and soon expanding and the Paccar truck engine plant soon to break ground, the resulting restaurant and shopping options may soon be here.
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| June 27, 2007 |
Factory site sought by Toledo's Heidtman Steel (Toledo Blade)
Sites in the upper Midwest and the South are being considered by Heidtman Steel Products Inc. for a new $225 million mill that would supply high-strength steel to the auto industry and other manufacturers. A supplier of steel for the Big Three automakers, Heidtman has partnerships in steel processing facilities. One is with SeverCorr Corp. involving a recently opened $850 million facility in Columbus, Miss. It has a 700,000-square-foot cold mill and is one of only four in the country capable of producing coils up to 72 inches wide.
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| June 7, 2007 |
Second production area now online (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
A second major production area has come online at SeverCorr, America's newest steel-producing company. Company officials announced the cold mill now is operational at the Columbus facility. “Our commitment to invest in only the best-available technology can easily be seen in our cold mill,” said Mike Wagner, chief commercial officer of SeverCorr. “The term state-of-the-art is often overused, but it is an accurate description in this case.”
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| June, 2007 |
New Cold Mill in Operation at SeverCorr (Metal Producing and Processing)
The 1.2-million tons/year cold mill at SeverCorr L.L.C. has started commercial production, a significant advance in year-long launch of the new mini-mill. The five-stand tandem mill one of just four domestic lines that couple pickling and rolling in a continuous process, according to SeverCorr. The pickling operation started up in January.
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| June, 2007 |
New Electric Arc Furnaces Sparking Interest (Metal Producng & Processing)
Only a year-and-a-half since breaking ground at its 1,400-acre site in Mississippi, the new steel company SeverCorr already has announced it will expand the capacity of its greenfield plant."
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| May 25, 2007 |
Curriculum changes, real-world experience part of state's education improvement plan (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
In speech after speech, state leaders celebrate the strong work ethic of Mississippians, going on to say that this get-it-done attitude helped the state land some of the substantial recent manufacturing announcements like Toyota, Paccar, SeverCorr and others. "
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| May 12, 2007 |
Region joins governor for PACCAR announcement celebration (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
“Columbus, the Golden Triangle, competed for this plant,” Mississippi goverfnor Haley Barbour said. “And we had serious competition, I can assure you. At the end of the day, PACCAR did what SeverCorr did and what EADS North America did and others will in the future and that is they realized the best place to do this is in Columbus, Miss.”
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| May 11, 2007 |
500 jobs headed to Lowndes County (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)
The PACCAR Inc. diesel engine plant coming to Lowndes County will bring 500 jobs into northeast Mississippi’s Golden Triangle when it opens in 2010. Other businesses that recently moved into the area include SeverCorr, a $880 million steel mill, American Eurocopter, Tally Defense and Aurora Flight Sciences.
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| May 10, 2007 |
Port Authority pondering what to do with maintenance on Leroy's Landing (Columbus Commercial Dispatch
Now that the Lowndes County Port Authority owns the popular west bank boat ramp known as Leroy's Landing, it is searching for answers on what to do with the ramp once a 20-year maintenance agreement the county has with the state runs out in September. The U.S. Corps of Engineers owned Leroy's Landing until the Port Authority bought it along with about 60 other acres of land as a location for a barge unloading facility for SeverCorr. After initially indicating they thought the location of Leroy's Landing was ideal for that facility, SeverCorr officials ultimately settled on a strip of land just to the south along Old Macon Road.
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| April 25, 2007 |
Steel Firm Stepping It up (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)
Steel maker SeverCorr will move sooner than expected on plans to double the output of its mill in Columbus. "You look at the foundation of reasons why SeverCorr came to Mississippi, and it was a growing market for steel in the Southern U.S.," company Chief Commercial Officer Michael Wagner said.
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| April 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr Speeds Up Construction (Purchasing.com)
SeverCorr, the new steel mill in Columbus, Miss., will accelerate the second stage of construction so the rolling mills to more than double the mill’s capacity will occur almost three years faster than planned. By the end of this year, the mill will be making 1.5 million tons annually of high-quality sheet steels suitable for the automotive, building, agricultural, tubular products and appliance industries. The second stage will boost capacity of uncoated and coated sheet to 3.4 million tons/year.
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| April 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr Steel Mill Speeds Up Schedule (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
While SeverCorr isn't melting its own steel scrap yet, that hasn't stopped officials from going ahead with the addition of a second production line. The mill, still under construction in Lowndes County, got its pickling and oiling line operational in January, but officials said Tuesday it was going ahead with plans to add the additional line on the 1,400-acre site. The expansion originally was scheduled to take place two or three years from now, after the first phase of construction is finished, but SeverCorr officials said there is no reason to wait.
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| April 24, 2007 |
Columbus Steel Mill Speeds Up Schedule (Biloxi Sun Herald)
SeverCorr is speeding up its plans to add a second production line at its steel mill now under construction in Lowndes County. The 1,400-acre site can accommodate new facilities. The expansion originally was scheduled to take place two or three years from now, after the first phase of construction is finished. SeverCorr officials said Tuesday there is no reason to wait. Once in operation, the plant will be able to more than double its capacity to 3.4 million tons of steel, said SeverCorr CEO John Correnti.
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| April 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr Announces Plans to Expand (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)
Steel maker SeverCorr said it will expand its mill in Columbus sooner than it had originally planned. A second production line will be added that will more than double the mill’s capacity to about 3.4 million tons annually. The expansion had been set to begin two-to-three years after completion of the $880 million mill. The company said details of the expansion will be released following regulatory approvals and financing arrangements. SeverCorr’s flat-rolled steel coils can be used for automotive, pipe and tube, building, agricultural and appliance manufacturing.
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| April 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr Speeds Up Expansion Schedule (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
Plans to expand the SeverCorr steel mill in Lowndes County have been sped up. About 18 months after breaking ground at its 1,400-acre site at the Lowndes County Megasite, which has been designed to accommodate expanded operations, production partners and related manufacturers onsite, company officials today announced plans to accelerate expansion, including the installation of a second production line which will more than double the mill's capacity.
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| April 24, 2007 |
Factory Losses Severe (Jackson Clarion-Ledger)
While thousands of workers have lost jobs when Mississippi-based manufacturing plants closed over the past several years, some new industry has come to the state. Severcorr's steel plant begins operations this summer with 450 workers, Eurocopter in Columbus and Tower Automotive in Meridian are expanding, and Toyota will have 2,000 workers when the automaker opens a plant in 2010 near Tupelo. Tthere are 179,000 manufacturing workers in Mississippi, andindustrial jobs generate another two jobs for each employee at a manufacturer, which includes auto assembly, food processing, shipbuilding, furniture makers and steel processors.
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| April 24, 2007 |
SeverCorr Accelerates Plan for Expansion (Metal Producing and Processing)
SeverCorr L.L.C., Columbus, MS, is moving ahead with the second of its stage development, which will increase its available raw-steel capacity to 3.4 million tons/year — well above the original projections for the mini-mill's planned expansion. The first stage of the construction is still underway, though the mini-mill's pickling operation started commercial operation in January. No investment total for the expansion has been released. The project, as originally planned, is an $880-million investment that will produce 1.5 million tons/year of flat-rolled material for the automotive, building, agricultural, pipe and tube, and appliance industries.
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| March 2007 |
SeverCorr Ramping Up Steel Production In Stages (Metal Construction News)
The mill’s location was purposefully chosen to be central to the growing number of southern manufacturing industries requiring steel, including the metal construction industry. SeverCorr’s mill is within a day’s travel to dozens of major metal building systems and metal building component manufacturers, as well as manufacturers in other sectors such as framing, decking, HVAC and residential duct.
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| March 30, 2007 |
SeverCorr Starts Pickling Line; CRM Up Next (Metal Producing & Processing)
The first production process is installed and running at SeverCorr L.L.C., the $880-million greenfield mini-mill in Columbus, Mississippi. The 1.5 million tons/year continuous line was designed and installed by SMS Demag, which is the primary contractor for most of the process equipment at the site.
SMS designed the line to operate with its turbulence pickling technology, and soon it will be coupled with a five-stand, four-high, cold-rolling mill. The CRM is expected to be in operation by the end of the first quarter of 2007, while galvanizing and galvannealing will be in process by the end of the second quarter.
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| March 30, 2007 |
Company outlines plans for west bank port facility (Commercial Dispatch)
Construction on a new port designed to handle inbound raw materials and outbound finished steel for SeverCorr is expected to begin in April, with an estimated six to eight months until completion. The facility, which will be located on a site on the west bank of the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway leased from the Lowndes County Port Authority, will be expandable to accommodate future business.
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| March 29, 2007 |
Sanders reports on ‘state of the county' (Commercial Dispatch)
Lowndes County is booming with industry and poised for growth, and excitement surrounding the opening of the SeverCorr steel mill is just a small part of the big picture.
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| March 15, 2007 |
Construction of west bank barge facility to begin soon (Commercial Dispatch)
Now that the arduous U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting process is out of the way, construction on a new barge unloading facility on the west bank of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway could begin as soon as early April. The facility, which will be built and staffed by Kinder Morgan Terminals of Alquippa, Penn., will be used to unload scrap metal from barges and load it into trucks for delivery to the SeverCorr steel mill.
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| March 15, 2007 |
Steel plant takes nerves (Cincinnati Enquirer)
Eddie Lehner, a University of Cincinnati graduate, went against the grain three years ago when he hitched his career and future to plans to build a $900 million steel mill in rural Mississippi. A former employee in the Cincinnati office of Deloitte & Touche until 1992, Lehner told a luncheon meeting Wednesday, the plan to build a new a steel mill to supply the burgeoning auto industry in the southern U.S. felt like the crossroads of risk and opportunity.
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| March 15, 2007 |
Lights, Cameras, Awards: Charlotte, Others Vie For Top Economic Development Awards (PRInsider.com)
SeverCorr, was created to build a new and innovative steel mill in the United States to produce the highest quality steel used to build cars and to work with partner companies on site to process and manage deliveries to manufacturers -- saving time and money in bringing finished steel products to manufacturers.
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| March 14, 2007 |
Editorial: The energy of AHEAD (Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal)
And, while credit is being claimed for Toyota, Nissan, SeverCorr and others, everyone should pause and look at a highway map. Look where those hugely beneficial new investments are located. Then, think of highways in 1987. The new plants would disappear from any pictures because they, or their equivalents of the day, would not have come.
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| March 12, 2007 |
D.C. trip ‘very productive,' says Link delegation (Commercial Dispatch)
A Columbus-Lowndes Development Link-sponsored delegation recently was favorably received in Washington, D.C. “It was very productive,” Link Chief Operations Officer Chris Marsh said of the trip to the nation's capital, during which 10 community leaders traveled Feb. 27 through March 1 to meet with U.S. Reps. Chip Pickering and Roger Wicker, both R-Miss., as well as Sens. Trent Lott and Thad Cochran, both R-Miss. "Some had been here before to see the new SeverCorr site and American Eurocopter developments. They were keyed up on what was going on in Lowndes County, which was really good for us.
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| March 11, 2007 |
Man of Steel (Commercial Dispatch - Special Progress Edition)
I'm trying to create a family business on a bigger scale. I want to train employees our way to do things. For people to stay in the community, they have to have good paying jobs. You can't bring up a family on fast-food wages.
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| February 28, 2007 |
Entire region should expect boost from Toyota (Commercial Dispatch)
The Golden Triangle can expect to benefit in a big way from Toyota Motor Corp.'s decision to build a new $1.3 billion assembly plant at the Wellspring site near Tupelo, officials say.
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| February 25, 2007 |
Shifting Business (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
Industry in northeast Mississippi's Golden Triangle has been turning aces the past few years. Steel companies, technology firms and defense contractors have sprouted, and developers expect a yield of 1,200 new jobs within three years. Tupelo's medical industry, farther to the north, promises more jobs.
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| February 23, 2007 |
SeverCorr executive tapped by governor (Commercial Dispatch)
Gov. Haley Barbour today announced the appointment of Eddie Lehner of Columbus to the State Workforce Investment Board. The board is in charge of developing a strategic plan to align workforce development resources and structures to more effectively meet the demands of Mississippi's employers and job seekers, according to a press release from the governor's office.
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| February 15, 2007 |
Authority wading through west bank port paperwork (The Commercial Dispatch)
Lowndes County Port Authority officials are still wading through a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permitting process and negotiating with SeverCorr officials before beginning construction on a west bank barge unloading facility.
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| February 14, 2007 |
Barbour hits campaign trail (The Commercial Dispatch)
During a campaign stop Tuesday afternoon at the Golden Triangle Regional Airport, Gov. Haley Barbour vowed to increase the number of skilled workers for high-tech jobs if he's re-elected for another four years.
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| February 8, 2007 |
SeverCorr Names Supply-Chain Platform Supplier (Metal Producing and Processing)
SeverCorr L.L.C., the greenfield mini-mill that last week inaugurated the first processes for its $ 880-billion investment, has chosen ADS Logistics L.L.C. as its integrated supply-chain services contractor.
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| January 31, 2007 |
Giving SeverCorr spouses confidence to communicate (The Commercial Dispatch)
Answering the telephone. Talking to a bank teller. Mailing a letter at the post office. These are things that natural English speakers sometimes take for granted. To someone from another country, even with a basic grasp of the language, these routine tasks can be frustrating and overwhelming. The wives of several of the SeverCorr executives know this feeling well.
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| January 31, 2007 |
SeverCorr begins limited production (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
SeverCorr employees have begun the first stage of steel production at the $880 million Lowndes County plan. The plant is being started up in reverse — end-line processes first with outsourced steel coils — as construction on other parts of the facility continue. The production started with a pickling line, which bathes, heats and cleans flat-rolled steel coils.
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| January 31, 2007 |
SeverCorr pickling line now operating (Biloxi Sun Herald)
We are of course ecstatic with the startup of the pickle line, Mike Wagner, chief commercial officer of SeverCorr, said in a statement. Our employees ... have worked diligently for the last two months during training and testing and are excited to start processing coils for our customers.
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| January 31, 2007 |
SeverCorr pickling line now operating (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
To date, SeverCorr has processed more than 3,000 tons of material through the pickle line for nearly a dozen customers including Heidtman Steel Products, Kenwal Steel Corp. and MISA Metals.
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| January 31, 2007 |
SeverCorr Chooses ADS Logistics (Mississippi Business Journal)
ADS Logistics, a national provider of integrated supply chain services to the metals industry, has entered into agreement with SeverCorr to provide integrated logistics services to SeverCorr's steel plant in East Mississippi.
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| January 30, 2007 |
New challenge to Big Steel (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
The joint venture, called SeverCorr, will use low-cost technol ogy to produce high-quality steel, including grades suitable for exposed auto parts like hoods and trunks. It's a market largely served by U.S. Steel, Mittal Steel and AK Steel, which employ more-expensive techniques in integrated mills. If successful, SeverCorr could prompt a whole new wave of steel industry investment in the United States.
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| January 26, 2007 |
Downtown vital part of drawing industry (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority, told guests at the annual Main Street Columbus meeting Thursday the organization's efforts to revitalize the city's downtown played a significant role in attracting the SeverCorr steel mill - and more jobs will follow.
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| January 12, 2007 |
New jobs impacting workers, families (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
The first SeverCorr crew members, operators on the pickling line, are keeping it all in the family, literally and figuratively, working well together and excited about the impact the $850 million steel mill is having on both their lives and the Golden Triangle area.
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| January 12, 2007 |
Hiring process continuing at steel mill (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
“We're still very much under way in finding maintenance and operating people to come in and we're beginning to look at the hot mill process,” Furman said, noting 19 people have been hired for the pickling line, including two that will begin work Monday.
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| January 9, 2007 |
Improving education crucial to CAFB, colonel tells board (Columbus Commercial Dispatch)
“Economically, there is another danger to the area,” noted Gerber, who said families coming to the area for SeverCorr and other new businesses could opt to live outside of Lowndes County for better educational opportunities.
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| January 3, 2007 |
Promoting Mississippi (Jackson Clarion Ledger)
Corporate executives and site selection consultants play an ever-growing role in economic development projects these days, the head of the Mississippi Development Authority said Tuesday.
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