Outokumpu Presents Stainless Steel: A Renewable Product

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Outokumpu Presents Stainless Steel: A Renewable Product

Last fall, PEP invited member Outokumpu Stainless USA, LLC, to make a presetaion about its plant in Calvert, AL. (located in Mobile and Washington counties), as well as to share information on the inherently sustainable nature of the stainless steel industry.

Headquartered in Espoo, Finland, Outokumpu’s history goes back more than 100 years, with the company’s pioneers inventing stainless steel in 1912-13. Outokumpu has a global production presence, including 4 mills in the United States, as well as a sales network in 34 countries, across all five continents. Calvert is one of only two integrated mills in the country, producing high performance stainless plate, bar and pipe production units.

The Calvert facility is a 7 million-square-foot plant that employs more than 900 team members. Statistically, it has the capacity to melt 900K tons, hot roll 870K tons, and cold roll 350K tons of stainless steel. Additionally, it is the only U.S. producer of 72″ wide coil, and boasts a customized finishing line for polishing, slitting and cut-to-length steel.

As we learned from Environmental Services Manager Wayne Denton, stainless steel is 100 percent recycled and doesn’t lose its properties in the recycling process. Steel is, in fact, the most recycled material in the world and more than two million tons of recycled steel are used annually. The recycled content of Outokumpu steel is greater than 85 percent, on average, against an industry standard of 50 percent recycled content. As a result, CO2 emissions have been reduced by 25 percent over the last 10 years and Outokumpu’s goal is to achieve a reduction of an additional 20 percent by 2020.

Offering the broadest range of products of any manufacturer in the industry, Outokumpu has provided stainless steel for a wide variety of projects around the world, including familiar U.S. landmarks such as Cloud Gate in Chicago, the NASCAR Hall of Fame building in Charlotte, N.C., and Freedom Tower (One World Trade Center) in New York.

In addition to its sustainable measures, Outokumpu has made a tremendous economic impact on our region, with $8.2 million paid in Sales and Use tax in Mobile County and the State of Alabama since 2009, $19.8 million paid in property tax to Mobile and Washington County since 2008, and $1.1 billion with southeastern U.S. based companies. Additionally, more than 90 percent of the 922 team members in Calvert were recruited from Alabama.

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