In order to meet the growing demand for coil coated metal, NCCA members have invested capital to build strategically located new production facilities. The new plants have added much needed production capacity to better service their customers’ growing demands for coil coated metal.

Intense competition in our global economy means manufacturers must focus on lowering costs and maximizing existing resources. A conversion to coil coated metal can accomplish these goals, while providing many more benefits including:

• Eliminating the need for in-house painting
• Streamlined production process
• Energy cost savings
• Additional space in the plant for other operations
• Reduction in EPA reporting and compliance concerns
• Upgraded environmental status
• A beautiful, durable finish

The many benefits of prepaint have led to dramatic increases in manufacturers’ demand for coil-coated metals, and the NCCA’s member companies are responding.

To support their growth in the Southeast, Precoat Metals of St. Louis has opened a 150,000 square foot facility in Hueytown, near Birmingham, Alabama. 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 U.S., opening in August 2007 a new facility in Armorel, Arkansas. 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.

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

It’s clear that coil coated metal is on a roll, and as more industries discover the benefits of converting from post-painted to prepainted metals, members of the National Coil Coating Association will be ready to meet the demand with increased capacity.