One of the country’s fastest growing companies is opening a state-of-the-art slag processing and distribution facility at the Port of Indiana.

Phoenix Services recently signed a multi-year contract with ArcelorMittal to provide slag and processing services for the company’s Burns Harbor facility, the Ports of Indiana said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Phoenix has opened a 13-acre distribution facility at the port and is installing processing equipment at various locations throughout the ArcelorMittal complex.

“We are in the process of installing the most technologically advanced slag processing plant in the world,” Phoenix President Doug Lane said. “We plan to produce the highest quality aggregates in the industry at production rates far exceeding other competitive operations. We are very pleased to be selected as the slag contractor for ArcelorMittal and are also pleased to be working with the Port of Indiana to facilitate our operations.”

Lane founded Phoenix in 2006 and headquartered it in Kennett Square, Pa. The company now has 25 facilities located in the U.S., Europe, and South Africa and nearly 1,000 employees domestically. The company is creating roughly 80 jobs between the port facility and operations within the ArcelorMittal mill.

Phoenix will dig the ArcelorMittal blast furnace pits to recover scrap iron and slag—a byproduct of iron- and steel-making—and will process the slag into aggregate for use in local road construction projects. Slag can also be used in general construction, ice control, railroad ballast and improving water and soil quality. ArcelorMittal will reuse the recovered iron and Phoenix will distribute aggregates from the port by truck for local construction and by barge to manufacturing facilities around the country.

“Phoenix Services is a world-class company and we are proud to have them at the port,” said Ports of Indiana CEO Rich Cooper. “Phoenix is making major investments into state-of-the-art processing equipment here. The company's overall growth in the last five years is most impressive.”

The Port of Indiana is now home to 30 companies—16 of them steel-related firms—which benefit from the facility's multi-modal connections, specialized services, and foreign-trade zone status. The 600-acre port handled more than 2 million tons of cargo in 2011 via international ships, lake vessels, and river barges. Ratner Steel Supply Co. recently announced plans to locate a new steel-processing facility at the port, creating up to 30 new jobs by 2015.

Posted 4/25/2012