FiberTite Roofing Systems by Seaman Corporation offer quality, longevity and best overall value to global leader ThyssenKrupp for new Alabama steel mill

At a time when the impact of the nation's shrinking manufacturing base is palpable, ThyssenKrupp, one of the world's largest steel manufacturers with headquarters in Germany, is building a new world-class steel and stainless steel processing facility in Alabama. The $4.2 billion building project is reportedly the largest single private industrial investment in the U.S. ever, and one that will culminate in 2,700 new jobs.

Two point eight million square feet of FiberTite roofing membrane, by Seaman Corporation, will protect seven carbon steel processing facilities at this site, making this job a record setter also for Seaman Corporation. It is the largest roofing project ever in the FiberTite product's 30-year history. According to Team Roofing, the roofing contractor on the job, it is also the first time ThyssenKrupp, a company that employees 200,000 people and has operations in 70 countries worldwide, has ever chosen a thermoplastic single-ply roofing system to protect its facilities.

ThyssenKrupp's Alabama project is part of a global strategy to expand its steel business into the NAFTA region. In November of 2007, the company broke ground to begin moving the 12.5 million cubic yards of earth that were required to prepare the 3,500-acre site for the Alabama mill. Situated just north of Mobile along the Tombigbee River, the location is ideal for transporting goods, including slabs that will come from a new ThyssenKrupp steel making facility under construction in Brazil. The Alabama facility will include a hot strip mill, cold rolling mill, and hot dip galvanizing mill with state of the art equipment to process these slabs. Construction of both a river terminal and a port terminal on Mobile Bay to service the facility are underway. Clearly, ThyssenKrupp intends to stick around.

Details of the construction specifications further confirm this fact. Released with European standards, the specifications called for the highest quality performance at every level of the job. Of particular importance to a project of this magnitude, is the product protecting the roof. The original specification called for a modified bitumen system.

"ThyssenKrupp is very familiar with modified systems and has used them on several prior installations," reported Michael Miller, national sales manager for Team Roofing.

A compressed construction schedule and a changing economy, however, prompted ThyssenKrupp to reconsider their options. With value and long-term performance their highest priorities, an extensive search led them to FiberTite.

Todd Gallaher, estimating director for Team Roofing, added, "We considered the project's need for durability and longevity, the traffic on the roof, the exhaust, heat variants and weather in the area. Ultimately it came down to the best overall value and FiberTite will provide this."

"Looking at the schedule, it made even more sense," continued Gallaher. "FiberTite is quick to install. We can put down 300 squares of FiberTite a day. That is faster than we can install a modified bitumen system. This was appealing to the customer who is trying to stay on an aggressive installation schedule."

Furthermore, FiberTite offers more flexibility for installation in terms of weather. Any rain at all delays installation of a modified bitumen system because asphalt and moisture just don’t mix. FiberTite is not as moisture sensitive.

The customer also had environmental concerns. FiberTite is a highly reflective roof surface that is Energy Star compliant and proven to offer the owner significant energy savings over its life cycle. A modified bitumen system, on the other hand, relies on coatings to achieve and maintain compliance with Energy Star.

Still, convincing ThyssenKrupp to make this change wasn’t easy.

"It took both the people of ThyssenKrupp Steel USA and the board of directors to make the decision to go with a single ply," said Miller. "With the choice of FiberTite, ThyssenKrupp has opted for high quality and longevity in their roof assembly."

ThyssenKrupp reports that they will commence operations at the new Alabama plant in the spring of 2010. Annual capacity will be 4.1 million metric tons of American made carbon steel products that will be available to customers in the automotive, construction, pipe and tube, service center, and appliance industries.