The final coil of steel has been coated at AK Steel's Ashland Works in Kentucky, bringing an end to all operations at the former integrated mill.

The coating line processed its final coil on 11 November, according to the company. The plant had been mostly idled for at least three years, but had maintained a single hot dip galvanizing coating line. The work from that line will be distributed to other AK Steel locations.

The coating line had a capacity of 336,000 t/yr (370,000 st/yr), according to data from the Association for Iron and Steel Technology.

In January, the steelmaker decided to close the final coating line by the end of the year in order to save AK Steel over $40mn/yr.

By Rye Druzin