John Cockerill has developed one of the most comprehensive and innovative offerings in the metals sector — covering every stage of the value chain, from raw-material preparation to finished strip.
Our mission: to help clients improve production efficiency, product quality, and sustainability, while driving the decarbonisation of steelmaking.
Our Metals activities are organised into three complementary segments:
- Iron & Steelmaking (upstream)
- Processing & Rolling (downstream)
- Services & Energy Efficiency (lifecycle support)
This structure allows us to address the entire steelmaking process — from green primary production to advanced finishing lines.
We have developed a robust and innovative offering, including Volteron™ (direct electrolysis), JVD® coating and E-Si® electrical steel, for our clients in the steel and non-ferrous metal treatment sector. We provide comprehensive equipment, services, and integrated support for steel and non-ferrous metal processing — including reheating furnaces, pickling and acid-regeneration systems, cold-rolling mills, strip-processing lines, automation, and heat-treatment furnaces for the moulding and forging sectors.
Global Presence and Capabilities: our production and assembly workshops
Operating across North America, Europe, China, and India, John Cockerill Industry serves clients worldwide through a network of engineering centres, manufacturing sites, and service hubs. More than 500 dedicated experts support our Metals business alone, ensuring seamless project execution and lifecycle management wherever our customers operate.
Our two Indian workshops are equipped with cutting-edge machinery and produce and assemble equipment that complies with the most demanding of international standards in terms of quality and safety.
Manufacturing footprint:
Taloja (India) is our centre of excellence for cold-rolling mills and process-line assembly:
- Centre of excellence for the manufacturing of cold rolling mills;
- 25,000m²;
- High-precision digital and conventional machinery;
- 28 assembly stations for rolling mills, process lines and furnaces;
- Qualified and experienced team;
- Quality inspection equipment;
- Detail engineering teams.
Hedavali (India) is a large-scale fabrication and finishing facility:
- Production capacity of 150 tonnes per month;
- Sandblasting and painting facility;
- 100,000m² site, 3,000m² of which is under cover and fitted with bridge cranes.
Salem (USA) is a centre of excellence for furnaces with specialised assembly floor with more than 6,200 furnace references, all designed, manufactured and supplied out of this workshop.
A unique combination of cutting-edge technologies
The needs we are experiencing when it comes to surface quality, mechanical properties and treating new grades of steel are constantly changing, and we are continuously developing cutting-edge technological innovations designed to protect the environment, save energy and provide a return on investment, very much aware of the fact that our success relies on us understanding and meeting your needs and expectations.
- Spray pickling represents a key technological development in the pickling of steel strips, helping to reduce pickling time by up to 70% and making it possible to treat a wider range of grades of steel using less acid and at a lower temperature, basically resulting in faster pickling using less substance and less energy. Combined with our innovative silicon elimination technology SILASS™, John Cockerill offers the perfect package for treating new steels with a very high AHSS and UHSS resistance;
- We have also developed the Ultra Dry Cooling system, the speed of which guarantees both the quality of the latest generations of very high-resistance AHSS and UHSS steels and a superior surface quality;
- John Cockerill is advising and assisting ArcelorMittal in developing the new Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD) sheet coating process, which helps optimise the amount of zinc deposited and makes it possible to coat very high-resistance grades of steel that are difficult to treat using a hot-dip galvanising process. This vacuum coating technology helps make vehicles lighter and therefore reduce their consumption;
- John Cockerill has upgraded Europe’s largest metal sheet reheating furnace, at the ArcelorMittal site in Gand. This unique facility makes it possible to use blast furnace gas to reheat the steel before it is hot-rolled using new double regenerative burners (DRB). This system makes it possible to use an alternative energy source and therefore represents a significant competitive advantage.
High-added-value services
As a John Cockerill client, you will benefit from its experts’ know-how with regards to all aspects of the chain, from maintaining your equipment throughout its life-cycle to the transfer of knowledge and even implementing systems to help you manage your facilities.
- Our client relations continue long after your facility is up and running, with John Cockerill offering a whole host of tailored services and spare parts designed to minimise downtime. The knowledge we have accumulated when it comes to sourcing means that we are able to provide critical parts very quickly and at very competitive prices, as well as low-inventory parts. Our offering also incorporates a number of maintenance programmes designed to meet your needs, including preventive and routine maintenance and minor upgrades designed to maximise productivity and production speed and optimise costs and energy efficiency;
- John Cockerill shares its expertise by means of knowledge transfer, training your operator and maintenance teams either at your own facility or at our training centre in Maanshan. Our network of process experts can assess your energy performance and the quality of both your facility and your products, or offer any advice you may need regarding process and technology.
Optimising production through automation and process control
The various stages involved in the steel production process are complex, energy-hungry and key to determining the quality of the steel produced, meaning that each stage must be monitored individually. John Cockerill has developed a flexible automation and process control system to reduce your energy consumption, monitor the quality of your products in real time and optimise your line programming.
Automation and process control systems are based on our knowledge of industrial processes and our experience in the fields of cold rolling mills, processing lines, chemical processes and industrial furnaces. Such systems can take the following forms:
- Mathematical models for optimising thermal treatments or production (monitoring products and planning lines).
The development and improvement of multi-platform (level 1 / level 2) programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and man-machine interfaces. Our teams will guide you through hardware migration and upgrades relating to security, system redundancy, man-machine interfaces and command systems.
Through project management, global sourcing, automation, and know-how transfer, we deliver engineering solutions — backed by two centuries of innovation and a worldwide network of specialists.
