Commercial Metals Co., headquartered in Irving, Texas, announced Wednesday plans to build a $130 million Micro Mill steel manufacturing facility in the greater Phoenix, Ariz. area. Production is expected to begin in early 2009.
The new plant will have a capacity of about 280,000 tons annually and will provide about 110 new jobs in the area.
The Micro Mill features a "continuous continuous" process where metal flows uninterrupted from melting to casting to rolling.
Its design is more compact than existing, larger capacity steel minimills and offers lower initial capital construction costs and ongoing operating efficiencies by focusing on cost-effective production of a limited product range. In this case, the Micro Mill will be a "focused factory" producing primarily reinforcing bar.