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Outokumpu, the largest supplier of stainless steel in UK, recently expanded its distribution centre in Sheffield with the opening of a plate and tubular service centre alongside its coil service centre.
Stainless steel producer, Outokumpu Oyj has expanded its distribution centre in Sheffield with the opening of a plate and tubular service centre at its Shepcote Lane works in Sheffield. This follows the opening of a coil service centre in 2004, following a reorganisation of the Shepcote Lane works which saw a switch from flat products cold rolling from Sheffield to sites at Avesta Sweden and Tornio, Finland.
Steelmaking at Sheffield is now approximately 50:50 slab and billet production with the semis shipped to Sweden and Finland for rolling. The cessation of wide strip cold rolling at Sheffield was a logical conclusion since the site had no hot rolling mill and hence had to ship slab to Europe for rolling and then ship back hot rolled coil for cold rolling and final processing at Sheffield. The closure of the cold mills and annealing line released some 18000m2 of buildings for the expansion of the existing stainless distribution centre which serves UK and Ireland.