High-strength and ultra-high-strength steel grades from Salzgitter: Status of construction work on the hot-dip galvanizing line 3

In June 2019, Salzgitter Flachstahl embarked on the construction of the "Hot-dip Galvanizing Line 3" at the Salzgitter location, ranking as one of the largest single investments of the past ten years. 

In the meantime, essential parts of the strip processing line, the skin pass mill and the furnace as well as the zinc pot have already been mechanically assembled. This marks a major step towards the commissioning of the new hot-dip galvanizing line 3. 

The zinc coatings to be realized with the galvanizing unit will be in a typical automotive range. In combination with further aggregates such as the skin pass mill, galvanized surfaces will be created which meet the technical and optical requirements of the automotive sector.

Operations will commence in 2022. The aim is to produce high-strength and ultra-high-strength steel grades for body and chassis applications, which play an important role in today’s lightweight automotive construction and vehicle safety.

The new plant will produce hot-dip galvanized sheets with thicknesses between 0.7 and 2.5 millimeters and widths between 900 and 1,700 millimeters, thereby specifically supplementing and rounding out Salzgitter Flachstahl's portfolio of grades and dimensions.

The innovative features of the plant are mainly to be found in the technologically relevant aggregates in the furnace area. The spectrum of materials currently planned will range from ultra-high-strength dual-phase steels through to complex-phase steels and all the way through to AHSS steels of the 3rd generation (Advanced High Strength Steel) range. At the same time, the configuration of the overall plant provides the structural and technical prerequisites for realizing further innovative material concepts for the future.