profitable operations as well as market demand prompted a major commitment to build a continuous casting department in 1967 with the announcement of four curved mold continuous casting strands and six lines of three induction slab reheaters. two additional 110 ton bop vessels were also added to replace old and obsolete equipment (the 60 ton vessels). with these improvements to mclouth's steel making process, mclouth became the first steel mill to eventually produce 100% of its product by the continuous casting process, which added significantly to the efficiency of the operations and improved the quality of the finished product.