AK Steel Introduces NEXMET(TM) Family of Next Generation High Strength Steels

WEST CHESTER, OH--(Marketwired - Aug 22, 2016) - AK Steel (NYSE: AKS) announced today it is launching NEXMET™, an innovative family of high strength steels for use in automotive lightweighting applications. These products are specifically designed to assist automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in meeting 2025 U.S. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) targets.

AK Steel's NEXMET family of products will offer high strength, greater ductility (elongation), and improved formability solutions for a range of needs for structural and exterior automotive body lightweighting uses.

NEXMET 440EX is the company's first new steel to be launched in this family of products. This new exposed surface quality product combines high yield and tensile strength at thinner gauges to facilitate lightweight designs. This results in enhanced performance where surface appearance and dent resistance are critical. AK Steel's NEXMET 440EX is currently available and is being qualified by automotive OEMs as a steel solution for exposed body panel lightweighting needs.

"We are excited about the opportunities NEXMET 440EX offers automotive designers in their efforts to lightweight vehicles," said Roger K. Newport, Chief Executive Officer of AK Steel. "This product is yet another important part of AK Steel's strategy to offer innovative products for our customers." 

AK Steel will launch its Next Generation Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) products, NEXMET 1000 and 1200 in early 2017, following completion of upgrades at AK Steel's Dearborn Works hot dip galvanized line. These AHSS steels will offer significantly improved ductility at tensile strengths of 1000 megapascal (MPa) and 1200 MPa, and will be used to help lightweight automotive body structures. 

AK Steel
AK Steel is a leading producer of flat-rolled carbon, stainless and electrical steel products, and carbon and stainless tubular products, primarily for automotive, infrastructure and manufacturing, construction and electrical power generation and distribution markets. Headquartered in West Chester, Ohio (Greater Cincinnati), the company employs approximately 8,500 men and women at eight steel plants, two coke plants and two tube manufacturing plants across six states (Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia) and one tube plant in Mexico. Additional information about AK Steel is available at www.aksteel.com.