Mark Szakonyi, Associate Editor | Mar 13, 2012 2:34PM EDT
The Port of Mobile this week handled its largest import shipment of steel, as ThyssenKrupp’s four nearby mills drive cargo through the Alabama port and offset a coal traffic slump.
Pinto Terminal workers discharged 4,259 carbon steel slabs weighing 94,210 metric tons on the SHI DAI 20, a bulk carrier chartered by Ultrabulk Shipping A/S, on March 12. Annual steel volume through the port over the last two fiscal years has more than tripled to 3.6 million tons, with about two-thirds of the shipments bound for the German steelmaker.
“We’ve long known this mill and its markets would impact this port in a number of positive ways; now, investments serving steel are starting to bear fruit,” said Jimmy Lyons, director and chief executive of the Alabama State Port Authority.
ThyssenKrupp has invested about $4.6 billion in its two plants in Calvert, Ala., with about 70 percent of the investment going toward a carbon steel plant that can produce 4 million tons of carbon steel annually. Mobile handled approximately 3 million tons of steel last year from all the steel plants in Alabama and expects to handle as much as 4 million this year.
Contact Mark Szakonyi at mszakonyi@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @szakonyi_joc.