The massive minimill is entering the relatively small pre-paint market, and banking that it will be the low-cost supplier for high-end applications. Driving around the hulking structures and swan-dotted ponds of the Steel Dynamics (SDI) Butler, Indiana flat rolled campus, you get the feeling you're traveling along an evolutionary timeline on steroids. The company started producing hot band at the Indiana location seven years ago, adding a cold mill and galvanizing lines just 18 months later. Its most recent venture is the addition of a coil coating line, expected to be producing high-quality pre-painted product by the fourth quarter of this year. The goal, Steel Dynamics says, is to be the lowest-cost provider to the marketplace and to grow its presence in the high value-added end of the carbon steel spectrum.
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