Ovako invests in increased heat treatment capacity
Ovako has decided to invest in increased production capacity at its plant in Smedjebacken. The investment is part of the company’s strategy to broaden operations at the plant and relates to a furnace that, together with the recently installed heat treatment capacity, will create coordinated, efficient and flexible production of heat-treated steel in Smedjebacken.
The investments now being made in Smedjebacken will reduce lead times in production and delivery of heat-treated steel for Ovako’s customers from weeks to one day or a few days, while considerably reducing the number of material movements within the group. The facility at Smedjebacken already has a materials laboratory and other technical functions that help to assure the highest quality.
“The investment in increased production capacity and heat treatment in Smedjebacken allows us to offer our customers a more flexible production process for heat-treated steel in Sweden and in other markets,” says Rickard Qvarfort, Head of Business Unit and President of Ovako in Smedjebacken. “The world is facing a major adjustment to tackle climate change. Ovako is one of the world’s most energy-efficient producers of high-strength steels, and by expanding our capacity we can help even more customers to become environmentally smart in their choice of steel and thereby reduce the environmental impact of their value chains.”
The increased capacity will help to reduce the appearance of bottlenecks in Ovako’s production flow associated with planned maintenance shutdowns, and will facilitate production planning across the year.
Like the furnace installed in Smedjebacken during the second and third quarters of 2016, the new furnace comes from Ovako’s plant in Forsbacka. Project planning has already begun, and the furnace is expected to be operational in April 2017.
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