CLEVELAND – In order to meet growing demand for coil-coated metal, National Coil Coating Association (NCCA) members have invested capital to build strategically located new production facilities. The new plants have added much-needed production capacity to better serve their customers’ growing needs for coil-coated metal.

 

Industry growth is fueled by manufacturers’ needs to increase efficiency. Use of prepainted metal can help to streamline production, save energy, reduce EPA reporting and compliance requirements, maximize factory space, eliminate the hassles of in-house painting, and produce beautiful and durable products.

 

To support growth in the Southeast, Precoat Metals of St. Louis has opened a 150,000-square-foot facility in Hueytown, AL, near Birmingham. The expanded facility employs approximately 80 workers and houses a 62-inch-wide tandem coil coating line and slitter on site. Precoat Metals supplies coil coating services to the building products, container, transportation, appliance and manufactured products industries.

 

Roll Coater of Indianapolis has also expanded operations to serve the southern United States, with a new facility in Armorel, AK, which opened in August 2007. The new plant contains more than 220,000 square feet of floor space and features a state-of-the-art coil coating line and slitter. Roll Coater is a leading provider of pre-fabrication coil coating services to steel mills, service centers and OEMs.

 

A third company, Fort Wayne-based Steel Dynamics Inc., also recently expanded capabilities. The company invested approximately $40 million in plant and equipment at its Jeffersonville, IN, facility and now is producing prepainted steel, acrylic-coated steel and 55-percent aluminum-zinc alloy-coated steel. The facility includes a state-of-the-art continuous coil coating paint line with an annual capacity of 190,000 tons.

 

It is clear that demand for coil-coated metal is growing. As more industries discover the benefits of converting to prepainted metals, members of the National Coil Coating Association will be ready to meet the demand with increased capacity.