Dillinger Hütte GTS supplied not only heavy plate, but also five shell sections consisting of chromium-molybdenum steel in diameters of over three meters and plate thicknesses of 153 millimeters, for the project for expansion of the St. Charles refinery at Norco, Louisiana, USA, with a reactor installation for production of ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD). The semi-finished components were used to fabricate three thick-walled reactors and two separators, the latter being among the world's largest, each with a length of 130 meters. On-time supply of the plates and other components from Dillingen was vital, in order to meet the project's extremely tight time-frame - due to further intensified environmental legislation in the USA, the plant had under all circumstances to go on stream by mid-2006.

The project was complicated by two factors, in particular - on the one hand, the vessels had been fabricated not in the USA but, instead, in India, necessitating two special movements by sea. Secondly, the vessels had to be internally clad with stainless steel, a process, again, that made maximum demands on the quality of the heavy plate supplied from Dillingen. The vessels nonetheless reached their destination two weeks ahead of the deadline.