Orion ramping up Rocky Mountain Steel rail line

The Rocky Mountain Steel Mills facility of Orion Steel has started the commissioning process on a rail production line at a mill in Pueblo, Colorado.

According to Italy-based technology provider Danieli & C. S.p.A., the machinery being put in place will be able to produce premium quality rails up to 328 feet in length. The new rail mill is designed to produce 650,000 short tons per year of high-quality, flat-bottom and thick-web rails, with hardness ratings reaching up to 425 on the Brinell hardness number measurement.

The roots of the project appear to trace back to 2021, when Evraz North America, the Rocky Mountain mill’s owner at that time, broke ground on a $500 million rail facility. The project reportedly ran into delays by 2023, with part of the problem involving lawsuits filed against each other by Evraz North America and a North Dakota-based construction contractor.

Evraz North America was affiliated with a Russian steel company, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine and subsequent financial restrictions in 2022 likely were factors in the eventual sale of Evraz North America assets to Greenwich, Connecticut-based Atlas Holdings earlier this year.

Shortly after that transaction, Atlas announced it was rebranding Evraz North America as Orion Steel Cos. while retaining the names Rocky Mountain Steel Mills and Oregon Steel Mills for the recycled electric arc furnace (EAF) mills in Pueblo and in Portland, Oregon, respectively.

In its December announcement, Danieli says the new equipment ramping up in Pueblo includes a break down mill, tandem reversing mill, cooling bed, and horizontal and vertical straighteners. Hot trials are underway, and startup activities are progressing according to plan, according to the vendor.

The rail will be made near the Pueblo EAF melt shop, which Atlas described earlier this year as the world’s largest solar-powered steel mill and the largest rail supplier in North America and said products made at Orion Steel regularly contain 98 percent-plus recycled scrap material.