Evraz ready to ride the rails

Evraz North America has broken ground on an upgraded steel rail production facility in Pueblo, Colorado, where the Russia-based global steel producer also operates an electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shop.

Colorado Springs, Colorado-based KRDO-TV reports the $500 million project will “create the most modern rail mill in North America” capable of producing 300-foot steel rails.

The TV station quotes Evraz North America President and CEO Skip Herald as saying at the ceremony, “Everything that goes into our steel facility is either old cars or old appliances, so we are recycling over a million tons every year.”

Evraz reportedly also will use solar power to supply the new facility, prompting Herald to say of the combination of solar power and a scrap-fed melt shop, “You have green steel, and there is nowhere else in the world that can claim that."

On its website, Evraz North America says the Pueblo location dates back to 1881 and “helped to build the American West by providing affordable steel and iron to the western territories and the nation’s expanding rail systems.”

The company also says, “The equivalent of more than a million cars a year are melted in our electric arc furnace (EAF)” in Pueblo.