AK personnel checked with other members of the American and Steel Institute and the Association for Iron and Steel Technology to verify the Middletown plant set the world record, said Alan McCoy, spokesman for the company.
“Congratulations to our Middletown Works crews on their record-setting performance,” said Jim Wainscott, chairman, president and CEO of AK Steel. “This extraordinary achievement exemplifies AK Steel’s commitment to our key values of safety, quality and productivity.”
Caster employees worked accident-free during the record-breaking run, while producing 474,131 tons of carbon steel slabs. Employees in the melting, maintenance, transportation, energy and blast furnace departments also contributed to the record performance.
While business conditions are stronger, the record more reflects the plant’s underlying operations rather than increased tonnage, McCoy said.
“In order to accomplish such a feat, every upstream operation — coke, blast furnace, steelmaking — and all the service and support groups must also be operating at maximum productivity or the casting string gets interrupted,” he said.
AK Steel’s Ashland plant in Kentucky previously held the world record for consecutive heats cast on a single-strand caster. That record — 1,851 consecutive heats — was set Sept. 26, 2002.
Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.
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