Nucor placed orders with Sheffield Forgemasters for ultra-large steel rolls for its new plate rolling mill. Sheffield Forgemasters will deliver three rolls weighing 147 metric tons each to Nucor’s Brandenburg Mill near Louisville, Ky., an advanced steel plate mill with the ability to produce 1.2 million tons annually.

Dan Millington, technical sales manager at Sheffield Forgemasters, said, “This is a significant contract for Sheffield Forgemasters and marks the first time that we have manufactured large plate-mill rolls for Nucor. Manufacturing rolls of this size is a highly technical process, requiring multiple forging operations through our 10,000-metric-ton press, controlled heat treatment to meet the customer requirement, as well as rough and finish machining.”

Sheffield Forgemasters will ship the Nucor components to Antwerp. From there they will cross the Atlantic Ocean to Baltimore, Md., before being taken by rail to Kentucky. The Brandenburg mill will produce cut-to-length, coiled, heat-treated and discrete steel plate ranging from 60-168 inches wide and in gauges from 3/16 of an inch to 14 inches. According to Nucor, it will be the only mill in the United States capable of manufacturing at scale the heavy-gauge plate used in monopile foundations for offshore wind towers.