NEW YORK — ThyssenKrupp Steel USA LLC’s motion to quash a subpoena in its lawsuit against a Georgia contractor has been denied by a judge, who transferred the motion to an Alabama court.

A U.S. District Court judge in Georgia denied the steelmaker’s motion to exclude a subpoena for testimony that the contractor, Austell, Ga.-based United Forming Inc., had served on a consulting firm hired by ThyssenKrupp Steel USA for its hot-strip mill project. United Forming had requested documents from Navigant Consulting Inc. for pending litigation in U.S. District Court in Alabama.

ThyssenKrupp Steel USA, a subsidiary of Essen, Germany-based steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG, had filed a complaint in Alabama against United Forming seeking more than $75,000 for alleged defects at its Steel Americas facility in Calvert, Ala.

United Forming, a specialty concrete construction firm, entered two separate contracts to provide services to ThyssenKrupp Steel USA as it built the hot-strip mill and a cold-rolling mill at Calvert, according to court documents. "UFI’s performance under the contract was flawed—so much so that a separate, exhaustive process was created just to address the numerous defects in UFI’s work," counsel for the steelmaker said in its original complaint, filed May 1.

United Forming alleged in its counterclaim that ThyssenKrupp did not pay for work done at the cold-rolling mill and requested that the Alabama court enter a judgment against the steelmaker for $19.4 million for services rendered.

The Georgia judge transferred ThyssenKrupp’s motion to quash evidence to the southern district of Alabama, according to court documents.