SSAB

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SSAB AB, earlier Svenskt Stål AB, is a Swedish-Finnish company, formed in 1978 and specialised in processing raw material to steel. The largest shareholders are Industrivärden and the Government of Finland.Swedish operationsThe headquarters is in central Stockholm. The production is located at Luleå, Borlänge, Oxelösund and Finspång. SSAB Sweden produces 8.8 million tonnes of steel.North American operationsIPSCO Inc. began as Prairie Pipe Manufacturing Co., Ltd. in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1956, changing its name to Interprovincial Steel and Pipe Corporation, Ltd. in 1960 and IPSCO, Inc. in 1984.As of 2000, IPSCO had used mini mills to produce flat-rolled steel for 40 years. Late in 2001, the company officially opened an Axis, Alabama mill (in the Mobile area), with a capacity of 1,250,000 tonnes,. The $US425 million rolling mill, with mill stand housings believed to be the largest one-piece cast mill housings in the world at 350 tons each, uses scrap steel to produce discrete plate and coiled hot rolled plate. Montpelier, Iowa had a similar facility which began operations in 1997, but this one would serve the Gulf coast. On October 21, 2008, SSAB announced a $US460 million expansion of the Axis mill to be completed in 2011. The mill already had 400 employees and 350 contractors.