SUN CITY, SOUTH AFRICA - North American Stainless, the Acerinox subsidiary in Ghent, Kentucky, started up its 800,000 tpy meltshop for the second time on May 4. The plant's first melt took lace on February 2, but a transformer failure caused progress with the start-up to be delayed.NAS, on which Acerinox has spent 1.1 bn dollars since 1993, is Spain's largest investment in the USA. Victoriano Munoz Cava, Acerinox's chairman and ceo, expressed deep dissatisfaction with the equipment suppliers to the NAS meltshop project, citing delays in the deliver of equipment as well as the problems with the transformer in an interview while he was attending the 6th annual meeting and conference of the ISSF. SMS Demag was the lead contractor on the project but director of communications Thomas Isagew declined to comment when contacted by MB. ABB, which supplied the transformer, was unable to comment as MB went to press.
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