Mittal’s steel to form the backbone of New York Freedom Tower
To heal the scar of devastation of September 11, engineers and steel workers at ArcelorMittal’s plant here are silently working to provide a firm and stable backbone to the iconic Freedom Tower at Ground Zero in New York. The Freedom Tower is under construction and is due to be completed in 2012. The mammoth tower is a form of rehabilitation for those hurt by the acts of terrorism, and a way to heal the wounds of New York and the United States.Mountains of metal scrap are being melted through a unique high temperature process to produce its speciaillty, the jumbo high tensile beams at ArcelorMittal’s plant in Differdange, 20 km from New York. From the plant, the beams are transported by train to nearby Antwerp and onwards to the United States by ship for use in the tower frame.
The plant has supplied 13,500 tonnes of steel for the tower, including 9,800 tonnes of jumbo beams since 2006. Overall nearly 18,000 tonnes of ArecelorMittal steel worth $30 million was ordered by the tower. Michel Wurth, member of the company’s Group Management Board said that Nearly 65 years ago, the United States liberated Luxembourg during World War II. Now they are proud that they are providing the basic steel structure for the emblematic Freedom Tower in New York. Lakshmi N Mittal, Aditya Mittal, Malay Mukherjee and Gonzalo Urquijo are the other board of members. The Differdange plant has been the pioneer of the steel beams used in skyscrapers, bridges, offshore structures, trusses (used in stadiums and hangars).
It produced the first 1-metre beam in 1911, and today is a global leader in this product.
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