Acerinox
Acerinox, S.A. is a stainless steel manufacturing conglomerate group based in Spain. The company was founded in 1970, and initially received technical support from the Japanese firm Nisshin Steel. Nisshin continues to hold approximately 15% of Acerinox as of April 2010. The headquarters are in Madrid. The chairman is Rafael Naranjo. As for 2008, the company was the world's largest producer of stainless steel.Companies and factories
Spain
- Fábrica del Campo de Gibraltar
- Roldán SA
- Inoxfil SA
- Inoxcenter SA
- Inoxidables de Galicia SAU
- Metalinox Bilbao SA
- Inoxmetal SA
- Acimetal
- Alamak Espana Trade SL
- Inoxcenter Canarias SA
Europe
- Acerol - Comércio e Indústria de Aços Inoxidáveis
- Acerinox France
- Acerinox UK Ltd
- Acerinox Scandinavia AB
- Acerinox Schweiz SA
- Acerinox Italia SRL
- Acerinox Turquía
- Acerinox Polska sp. z o.o.
- Columbus Stainless
- Bahru Stainless
- North American Stainless
- Acerinox Argentina
- Acerinox Chile
Accidents
In 1998, the Acerinox factory in Los Barrios, Cadiz melted a capsule of cesium-137 that was in a consignment of scrap metal. The radioactive substance was released into the atmosphere and spread over Europe — nuclear authorities in France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland detected up to 2,400 microbecquerels of ionising radiation in the air, 1,000 times higher than the norm. Two other factories in Huelva and Badajoz also became contaminated by waste transported to them from Acerinox. During the clean-up, 7,000 metric tons of radioactive waste were dumped in Mendaña Marshes, Huelva. The estimated costs of the accident were 20 million US dollars for lost production in the factory, $3 million for clean-up, and $3 million for waste storage.
