news steelmaking quality, testing & analysis

STEEL TIMES IN

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ril 2011 – Vol.35 No.3

April 2011 – Vol.35 No.3 – www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS STEELMAKING QUALITY, TESTING & ANALYSIS

STI jan 2_Layout 1 3/29/11 9:50 AM

Steelmaking – 1

Process control – Page 46

NewsNews – Japan turmoil hits steel companies 4

Statistics & Events – World crude steel output rises 8.8% 9

USA Update – Renco’s acquisition of Sparrows Point generates great interest in US steel industry 10

Latin America Update – Peruvian iron and steel industry is shining again 12

China Update – Supply exceeding demand in Chinese market 14

SteelmakingThe DK process – for the recovery of iron and zinc from BOF dusts and sludges 17

Operational experience at the new LF-VD station at SSAB, Oxelösund 21

Laboratory study on the addition of BOF sludge to the sinter blend 24

Reduction in steel defects by improved steelmaking in a Twin-Hearth furnace 29

Quality, testing and analysisLaser sensors reduce scrap when forging railway wheels 37

Automatic sample fusion for XRF Analysis 38

Lean Thinking: Revealing the obvious 40

Multielement analysis in single run XRF 42

Keighley Laboratories adds to testing resources 44

OTHERSA high-speed wire-rod mill for Votorantim Metais 46

Latest technologies in pickling of stainless, silicon and low carbon steel strip 50

Lowering emissions and energy with the Digit@l furnace and Advantek CWF burner 53

Conference Report: 16th Annual CIS Metals Summit in Moscow 55

UK Steel forum – The importance of manufacturing to GDP 56

History: Pioneers of steelmaking: Part 1 – Indian Wootz steel 60

Steel Times International – April 2011 – 3

Contents

ISSN 0143-7798

April 2011Vol.35/No.3

Features on the web www.steeltimesint.comSteelmaking.

Front cover imagecourtesy of Tenova

Full view of a Tenova pushpull pickling line.

Quality – Page 37

Furnaces – Page 53

April 2011 – Vol.35 No.3 – www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS STEELMAKING QUALITY, TESTING & ANALYSIS

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2011

April contents page_Contents_STI_Mar10 3/30/11 10:15 AM Page 3

4 – April 2011 – Steel Times International

News in Brief World News www.steeltimesint.com

VISIT: www.steeltimesint.comTo see a full list of news and features.

Kobe opens China headquartersKobe Steel has opened its Chineseheadquarters in Luwan District,Shanghai.Called Kobelco (China) Holding Co,the company will be the first head-quarters established in China by aJapanese blast furnace steelmaker.The subsidiary is capitalised at$50.14M and Kobe added $50M tothe existing $140k capital of KobeSteel Consulting to form the newcompany. The main activities of the Chinaheadquarters will be efficientfinance initiatives for financing,mergers and acquisitions, and cashmanagement; strengthening groupgovernance and risk management;and supporting group companies inChina.

New Zealand offshore oreOffshore ironsand explorerTransTasman Resources (TTR) says ithas achieved a world-first with con-firmation of commercially attractive‘inferred’ concentrations of ironsandon the sea floor off Whanganui,New Zealand – the first step toproving the reserves. The international geological surveyfirm Golders has rated a small areaof black sands within TTR’s offshoreexploration licence area as contain-ing the equivalent of 102Mt of ironore at a 60% concentration, provento an inferred level under the JointOre Reserves Committee (JORC)global standard.

Shagang CR lineShagang’s RMB40bn ($6bn) projecthas broken ground.The project includes building two1420m CR lines, one wire rod lineand a steel logistic centre.The two 1420mm CR lines, eachwith capacity of 1Mt/y, will producetinplate, zinc and aluminium galva-nizing coil, non-oriental silicon steel,CR coil, after completion. The proj-ect will be completed by 2013.Source China Metals e-mail [email protected]

Dongkuk plate expansionSiemens has received the FinalAcceptance Certificate fromDongkuk Steel Mill, South Korea, forits 5m plate mill No 3. The mill wasinstalled at the company’s Dangjin,South Korea works. The mill is capa-ble of producing plate with thick-nesses down to 5mm for applica-tions in the shipbuilding and con-struction industries. Siemens wasresponsible for the engineering ofthe mechanical equipment.

UK steel is‘bright’

Japan turmoil hitssteel companiesA number of Japanese steelworksreported damage after the massiveearthquake and tsunami whichstruck the country.

Nippon Steel’s KamaishiSteelworks was hit by the tsunamiand was knocked out of action. Itis located 130 miles north ofSendai, the nearest town to theearthquake’s epicentre.

Damage to the steelworksincluded its port facilities andNSC said it would continue tosupply steel products from produc-tion at its other steelworks.

NSC’s Kimitsu Works was tem-porarily suspended but hasresumed blast-furnace and rollingoperations.

Sumitomo Metals IndustriesKasima steelworks suffered dam-age, which caused a fire in a cokeoven gas holder as well as damageto the quay and the quay cranes,auxiliary facilities of the coke ovenand the loosened gas pipes, anddamage to the auxiliary facilities of

the blast furnace.The earthquake damage was con-

firmed mainly at the port facilitiesand upstream manufacturing facili-ties, and only slightly at the build-ings within the steelworks. No dam-age was sustained from the tsunamiwave. Shipments were made fourdays after the earthquake

Sumitomo Kashima is locatedon the coast due east of Tokyo andsome 190 miles south of Sendai.

JFE Corporation said its blastfurnaces in the East Japan Works,including in both the Chiba andKeihin areas, have resumed opera-tions following precautionarymaintenance and inspection.Maximum efforts have been madeto conserve energy due to the tightsupply of electricity.

The West Japan Works andChita Works were not damagedand are operating normally.

Kobe Steel’s steel facilities arelocated in the south of Japan andreported no damage.

Brazilianexpansion

The future has never looked sobright for UK steel and metal man-ufacturers according to the leaderof an oil and gas industry body.

Subsea UK chief executiveAlistair Birnie said there wereopportunities for specialist metalsin the oil and gas market.

Estimates reveal that plannedsubsea oil and gas projects aroundthe world will require around 90platforms, over 1000 trees, 80manifolds and around 12000 kilo-metres of pipelines and flow lines,said Mr Birnie. It represents ahuge amount of steel with a highcontent of specialist materials.

As global oil and gas projectsmove into increasingly deeperwaters, the technological and met-allurgical challenges increase sig-nificantly and that is where UKcompanies can exploit major newopportunities.

A recent Subsea UK studyrevealed the UK subsea industry isnow worth £5.9bn, a third of the£18.9bn global market.

China’s largest oremine set to openWhat will become China’s largestiron ore mine is expected to gainfinal regulatory approval.

Expected to produce 22Mt/y ofiron ore and 7.5Mt/y of iron con-centrates Taiyuan Steel’sYuanjiacun Mine designed lengthof service is about 40 years.

The RMB10bn ($1.52bn) proj-ect now enters the stage ofNational Development andReform Commission’s examina-tion and will probably gainapproval, according to the TaiyuanSteel Group.

Taiyuan is the largest steelworksin Shanxi Province. It is said thatthe project might break ground inH1 2011 and may yield its firstiron ore within a year. The whole

project will reach designed capaci-ty in three years. Plans were start-ed in 2008 but were delayed due torelocation problems of residentson the site. This problem has nowbeen solved so NDRC’s approvalshould come soon.

The mine is expected to produceabout 5Mt of iron concentrate in2012, while Taiyuan Steel’s ironconcentrate output in 2009 wasonly 5.3Mt.

Taiyuan Steel plans to use all theiron concentrate produced by themine into its subsidiary TaiyuanStainless Steel Co Ltd, the largestsingle mill site producing stainlesssteel in the world. Source China Metals e-mail [email protected]

Siemens VAI has received an orderfrom ArcelorMittal Monlevade tosupply components for the expan-sion of the João Monlevade steelmill in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The order includes equipmentfor an LD (BOF) converter, hot-metal supply and associated sec-ondary dust-cleaning systems.

The project has a total value ofmore than €20M, and is scheduledto be completed in 2012.

ArcelorMittal Monlevade is along product manufacturer with aproduction capacity of 1.2Mt/y ofcrude steel. The company is carry-ing out an expansion programmewhich will double capacitiesthroughout the process chain.

Both of the 130t LD (BOF)converter plants will be equippedfor parallel operation.

Siemens will design and supplythe hot-metal desulphurization sta-tion, ladles, deslagging stands, theladle and slag pot transfer cars,and the associated electrical andautomation equipment.

The material-feeding system willbe expanded, and its alloyingcapacity doubled.

The order also includes two sec-ondary dust-cleaning systems withcleaning capacities of 800 000 and1 000 000 m3/h respectively.

Vietnamese gloomThe Vietnamese steel industry isfailing to attract much-neededinvestment, despite relatively goodbusiness results in 2010, said theVietnam Steel Association (VSA).

The VSA said the sector’s plan-ning and its efforts to attractinvestors needed to improve.

While provinces have grantedinvestment licences for many proj-ects, there has not been adequate

supervision over the progress ofthese projects.

In response, the Ministry ofPlanning and Investment orderedprovinces and cities to check onlocal steel projects. Weak projectswould be scrapped.

VSA reported that some projectshad their investment licences with-drawn last year after failing to carryout projects.

STI news_Layout 1 3/29/11 3:02 PM Page 1


News in BriefWorld Newswww.steeltimesint.com


Nucor breaks ground inLouisiana DRI projectNucor Corporation has brokenground on its direct reduced iron(DRI) making facility in St JamesParish, South East Louisiana, USA. The company received its air permitfrom the Louisiana Department ofEnvironmental Quality in Januaryafter meeting all of the requisitestandards. Issuance of the air permitallowed the company to begin theprocess of ordering equipment, andthe company will now commenceconstruction. Initially, Nucor will build one DRIplant of 2.5M ston/y capacity, buthas been permitted for the con-struction and operation of twoplants with a combined DRI pro-duction of 5.5M stons/y.

Ansteel Putian commissioning The project broke ground inFebruary 2010 and was scheduledfor hot commissioning in March.2011. The project, with a plannedinvestment of RMB3.8bn($578.9M), will have 1Mt/y CRcapacity (of which 700kt/y is for CRcoil and 300kt/y for HDG coil).Ansteel said the CR coil producedhere would be mainly used in thehome appliance sector. E-mail [email protected]

Aumund Middle EastGerman company AumundFordertechnik has opened a sub-sidiary in Dubai. Under the name Aumund MiddleEast the new office will be headedup by Emil Catalina. He will be tak-ing care of business with clientsfrom the MENA region.Catalina has many years of experi-ence at his fingertips in the mineralsarena and in the cement industry.

SGL Carbon resultsThe positive trend in graphite elec-trodes resulting from increasedcapacity use in the steel industrywas partially offset by the sharpdecline in the aluminium cathodebusiness. Sales in the steel and alu-minium business area rose by 19%to €762.6M (2009: €641.6M). Theincrease in sales amounted to 15%.Despite higher sales of graphiteelectrodes and cost savings of €8M,EBIT declined by 5.1% to €144.1Mcompared to €151.9M in 2009. Thedecrease was due to higher rawmaterials costs that could not beoffset by price increases, the weakercathode business and start-up costsfor commissioning a new produc-tion plant in Malaysia.

Russia’s Metalloinvest, the coun-try’s largest iron ore producer, saidit had signed four-year supply con-tracts with domestic steelmakerNLMK for a total of 21.6Mt ofiron ore pellets.

The contract will allow for stablepellet supply to NLMK’s produc-tion facilities in Lipetsk, it said.Pellets to NLMK’s plant atNovolipetsk will be delivered fromMetalloinvest’s Lebedinsky andMikhailovsky mining and process-ing plants less than 400km fromLipetsk, the company added.

NLMK plans to boost produc-tion capacity by 40% to 17Mt/y bylaunching a new 3.4Mt/y blast fur-nace this year at Novolipetsk, itsaid.

China’s iron ore demandunder-estimated?Under-reporting in the Chinesesteel industry means that marketanalysts could have under-estimat-ed China’s iron ore demand by asmuch as 118Mt over the next twoyears. This is according to steelindustry consultants MEPSInternational in their new publica-tion China Steel Insight.

It appears that Chinese mills didnot fully declare their steel produc-tion due to pressure to meet gov-ernment targets to close obseletecapacity by the end of 2010.

MEPS estimates crude steeloutput in the country was under-reported by as much as 47Mt andproduction of pig iron by 44Mt.Consequently production of crudesteel in 2010 could have been ashigh as 674Mt compared to a fig-ure of 627Mt published by China’sNational Bureau of Statistics.

Some indication of the truescale of steel production is given inthe latest production data for2011, released after the govern-ment’s 2010 campaign against out-dated steelmaking capacity ended.This shows steel output early thisyear running at an annualised pro-

duction rate of 706Mt . This compares with estimates by

MEPS that crude steel productionin 2010 peaked at an annual rateof 739Mt. The highest annual runrate as stated by China’s NationalBureau of Statistics for 2010, was674Mt. This implies that crudesteel production at the beginningof this year, traditionally a periodof low output in the Chinese steelindustry, was 5% higher than peakrates in 2010. Analysts agree thatthis is unlikely.

The Chinese steel industry pro-ducing at even higher levels thanpreviously thought has global ram-ifications for commodity prices.The cost of coking coal and ironore are likely to remain high if min-ers have downplayed the scale offuture Chinese demand.

Peter Fish, Managing Directorof MEPS International says,“Chinese under-reporting of steeloutput could explain the high costof iron ore in 2010. This could alsohave a major impact on the miningcompanies’ predictions fordemand in 2011 and 2012.”

www.meps.co.uk

Russiansupplyagreement

BHP $10bnexpansionBHP Billiton will spend nearly$US10bn to expand iron ore oper-ations and energy and metallurgi-cal coal projects in Australia.

In Western Australia, it willspend US$3.3bn developing theJimblebar mine and rail links,delivering capacity of 35Mt/y.

US$1.9bn will be spent ondeveloping Port Hedland, includ-ing two additional berths andshiploaders, a car dumper, con-necting conveyor routes and asso-ciated rail works and rolling stock;and US$1.4bn on port blendingfacilities and rail yards to enableore blending.

The aim is to develop portcapacity that, with subsequentdebottlenecking, will allow it to fillits 240Mt/y allocation in the innerharbour.

It will spend $400M to expandHunter Valley Energy Coal inNSW to increase production by4Mt/y to 24Mt/y. The expansion isset to be completed in 2013.

It has approved three metallur-gical coal projects located in theBowen Basin in centralQueensland. The projects will add4.9Mt/y of mine capacity throughdevelopment of the Daunia andBroadmeadow mines.

Also, 11Mt/y of port capacitywill be developed at the Hay PointCoal Terminal. BHP is spending$2.5bn and the mines are set to becompleted in 2013, with the portterminal to be completed in 2014.

Fortescue heraldsAustralia resources

Fortescue Metals Group has her-alded a maiden resource estimateof 625Mt at its Western Hub proj-ect as a step towards its ambitionto see a new port developed in theWest Pilbara, Western Australia.

Announcing its second resourceupgrade in a month, the miner saidthe combined resource of itsWestern Hub and Solomon proj-ects ‘determine the necessity of thesecond port in Fortescue’s two-port, three-hub strategy’.

“The resource estimate cementsthe company’s determination toproceed with its planned Pilbaraport at Anketell Point,” it said.

Fortescue has already been

tapped as a foundation customerfor a new deepwater port atAnketell, about 25km north ofKarratha.

Development of the port isbeing spearheaded by AquilaResources and joint venture part-ner AMCI, who plan to have it upand running by mid-2014.

Aquila needs start-up capacity of30Mt/y for its West Pilbara projectand Fortescue has suggested itwould like the port’s initial capaci-ty to be as high as 115Mt/y.

It has also suggested it wouldlike to play a significant role indeveloping the port.

Fortescue’s total resource in thePilbara stands at more than 10bnt.

In February it reported a 1bntiron ore discovery at Nyidinghu,35km south of Cloudbreak, whichcould be developed as a new mine.

The 625Mt figure – at 58.8%iron – is based on drilling resultsfrom four targets. Another 10 areearmarked for a drilling pro-gramme due to start in May.

It expects iron ore prices toremain high until at least 2012before new supply enters the mar-ket from 2013 to 2015.


World News www.steeltimesint.com


BlueScope Steel says it is planninga structural reorganisation that willcombine its Australian and NewZealand businesses into a consoli-dated trans-Tasman unit.

BlueScope chief executive PaulO’Malley said the new structurewill combine three existing busi-ness units to deliver sales and mar-keting improvements and moreintegrated customer service.

Mr O’Malley said it was inresponse to macro-economicforces at play in the steel sector.

“Externally, the priority focus isto compete against imported steeland fast track the growth of ourbusiness in key sectors such asbuilding and construction.

“Internally, the focus is on inte-grating business support func-tions.”

BlueScope has appointed MarkVassella, currently president of

BlueScope North America, aschief executive of BlueScopeAustralia and New Zealand.

Noel Cornish will retire as chiefexecutive of the company's steelmanufacturing businesses from thebeginning of August, when he willjoin the board of the North StarBlueScope Steel joint venture.

Australian Coated andIndustrial Markets chief executivePaul O’Keefe will lead the transi-tion to the new organisation struc-ture and integration of manage-ment and support functions.

BlueScope shares havebdropped since the steelmakerunveiled a $55M loss for theDecember half on February 21.

The company has been ham-mered by the strong dollar, whichaffects interest margins, and thesurging cost of iron ore and cokingcoal inputs.

Bluescope Steel plans trans-Tasman unit

Asian group investsin niobium producer

Bharat inSMS boost India-based Bharat HeavyElectricals Limited (BHEL) hasplaced an order with SMS Meerfor the modernization of a 25-year-old seamless tube plant.

SMS Meer will upgrade theexisting plant to a modern, high-performance CPE (Cross PiercingElongating) plant. As a resultBHEL’s capacity will be doubledto around 100kt and its productrange extended. With the conver-sion to modern CPE technologyBHEL’s production processes willbe more cost-effective and energy-efficient, as material losses arereduced by 65%.

The maximum shell length onthe upgraded plant will increase to16m. The finished tube diameterranges from 26.7mm to159.00mm. In addition to carbonsteels the plant can now also pro-duce low- and high-alloy steels.

SBB SteelMarketsEurope 2011While the international steel mar-ket remains volatile and uncertain,a number of experts will meet inBarcelona May 26 to 27 to discussfuture developments and trends.

Steel Business Briefing will holdits annual Steel Markets Europeconference in Spain for its strate-gic position both for the Europeanmarket and the MENAT region.

ArcelorMittal, Marcegaglia,ThyssenKrupp and AlfonsoGallardo are four of the many topspeakers confirmed.

Companies will give presenta-tions on various topics from rawmaterials to end using demand.More than 200 delegates areexpected for two days of discus-sions and networking.

The participants will also havethe opportunity to spend an after-noon visiting the Barcelona plantof one of the major long producersin Europe, the Celsa Group.

China’s Anshan Iron & SteelGroup Corp has signed a deal withUK group Stemcor to set up a JV.

Anshan, the state-owned parentcompany of Ansteel based innortheast China, and Stemcor willeach hold a 50% stake in the newcompany.

Its functions include planningand implementing investment pro-grammes of the two collaborators,said Li Dongwei, vice manager ofinternational business.

The JV, to be based in London,is expected to start operation inMarch and will purchase abouttwo thirds of British USS Ltd.

USS specialises in coil slittingfor the construction industry and isbased in Halesowen, UK. It canslit coils weighing up to 25t, thick-ness ranging from 0.33-3.50mmand width ranging from 400-1525mm.

The majority of material slit isgalvanised coil, mainly direct forend-users with some slitting under-taken on behalf of third parties.Typical customers are UK-basedsection rollers serving the con-struction industry.

Tata oreprojectIndia’s Tata Steel and NewMillennium Capital Corporationare to develop the LabMag andKeMag iron ore deposits to beknown collectively as the TaconiteProject in eastern Canada.

Tata Steel will participate in a$51.5M feasibility study, enteringinto a joint venture agreement onsuccessful completion of the studyand opting to develop one or bothdeposits. Tata Steel will hold an80% stake in the jv, and NewMillennium Capital the remainder.

Together, the two deposits hold9bnt of reserves that will potential-ly produce 22Mt/y of concentrate,with a potential mine life of 100years. Tata Steel in September2010 said it was exercising itsoption to acquire an 80% stake ina projected 4 million dry t/y directshipping iron ore (DSO) project.

LabMag contains 3.5bnt ofreserves at a grade of 29.6% Feplus 1bnt of measured and indicat-ed resources at an average grade of29.5% Fe and 1.2bnt of inferredresources at an average grade of29.3% Fe, according to NewMillennium Capital.

KeMag contains 2.1bnt ofreserves at an average grade of31.3% Fe, 300Mt of measured andindicated resources at an averagegrade of 31.3% Fe and 1bnt ofinferred resources.

Anshan UK

joint venture

A Japanese and Korean investorgroup has bought controllingshares of a Brazilian niobium pro-ducer.

The investor group consisting ofJFE Steel Corporation (JFE),Nippon Steel Corporation (NSC),Sojitz Corporation (Sojitz) andJapan Oil, Gas and MetalsNational Corporation (JOGMEC)and a Korean groups Posco andNational Pension Service (NPS)bought 15% of CompanhiaBrasileira de Metalurgia eMineração (CBMM).

Niobium is a critical alloyingadditive in the production of high-grade steel products. CBMM is ina position to secure a continuoussupply system of the metal as theneed for high-grade steel productsgrows. The four Japanese compa-nies will use two special purpose

companies to acquire a 10% stakeand the two Korean companies willuse a separate Special ServicesCompany to acquire a 5% stake inCBMM.

The Japan consortium willspend $103bn and the Koreanconsortium $650M. Each of thesix consortium partners will indi-rectly hold a 2.5% stake in CBMM(for a combined total of 15%).

JFE, NSC, Posco and Sojitz alsoentered into a long-term niobiumsupply agreement with CBMM.

Niobium enhances the strength,durability, and heat resistance ofsteel products with the addition ofonly trace amounts.

High-grade and special steelproducts and superalloy productscontaining niobium includepipelines, automotive steel, large-scale construction steel, turbines,aircraft engines, including the onesused in space shuttles, and othermachinery.

CBMM, a Brazilian companyestablished in 1955, owns a niobi-um mine, refining plant and metal-lurgical production facilities in theAraxá area of Minas Gerais State.

Brazil holds the largest part oftotal known niobium reserves inthe world according to data fromofficial agencies, and CBMM isthought to hold rights to the bestniobium reserves in Brazil.


Minas Gerais Araxa

BRASIL

Brasilia•



World News www.steeltimesint.com


Poscoorder

Posco’s Pohang works in SouthKorea has ordered 10 Steelmasterdiameter/profile measuring sys-tems from Zumbach Electronics,Switzerland.

The systems will partially replaceexisting gauges or completeunequipped locations in the finish-ing sections of its # 1, # 2 and #3 rod mills.

All gauges are equipped with 6ODAC high speed laser scanner(in 6 axes) delivering 6000 cali-brated measurements per second,as well as with the latest hardware-and software concept.

The systems will be fully net-worked over Ethernet with Posco’smaterial flow and QC control sys-tem. The gauges are compact andrequire limited maintenance.Delivery of the gauges is scheduledfor early 2011. Posco has operateda number of similar gauges in theintermediate sections since 2008.

Qatar Steel to build1.1Mt/y EAF plant Qatar Steel is setting up a 1.1Mt/yplant at Mesaieed, Qatar to boostits production in response to risingsteel demand in the domestic mar-ket and in the GCC (GulfCooperation Council) region.

The plant will be located next tothe existing Qatar Steel plants inMesaieed, and is expected to becommissioned by the Q1 2013.

The plant will have SiemensVAI’s Ultra High Power 110t EAF,110t Ladle Furnace and six strandHigh Speed Billet Caster coupledwith a Fume Extraction System forzero emission. The plant will bedesigned according to SiemensVAI’s ‘best technology’ in the field

of steel plant machinery, equip-ment and automation.

It aims low investment, highproductivity, production flexibility,low specific consumption cost andhigh quality products.

The agreement for the new plantwas signed at Qatar Steel bycompany director/general managerAli Hassan al-Muraiki and NorbertPetermaier, senior vice presidentof Siemens VAI.

Qatar Steel was formed in 1974as the first integrated steel plant inthe Arabian Gulf. Commercialproduction began in 1978 with thecompany becoming wholly ownedby Industries Qatar (IQ) in 2003.

Thai dealArcelorMittal has bought a 40%share in Thai company G Steel andits subsidiary GJ Steel.

G Steel produces hot-rolledcoils and has an EAF-based medi-um slab rolling facility in Rayong,while GJ Steel has an EAF-basedthin slab rolling facility inChonburi, with a combined capac-ity of 2.5Mt/y. The two companieshave 1400 employees.

ArcelorMittal is partnering witha group of shareholders represent-ed by the Leeswadtrakul family,which is the founding shareholderof G Steel. It has also signed acredit facility agreement with GSteel and GJ Steel for $500M.

Wuhan Steel Group is to phase out5-8Mt/y of obsolete capacity tohelp gain approval of itsFangchenggang project in Guangxiprovince, from the central govern-ment of China.

It hopes to break ground laterthis year after buying land threeyears ago. The project was sup-posed to break ground in 2008,but was postponed due to thefinancial crisis.

Wuhan Steel said it would shutdown about outdated facilitieslocated in Wuhan and Liuzhou to

help gain approval for theFangchenggang Project

Wuhan is also considering hav-ing its overseas iron ore assets list-ed on the stock market.

It is involved in eight overseasiron ore mines in Canada, Brazil,Australia, Liberia and Madagascar,with combined reserves of 1bnt.

Among these projects, three arecontrolled by Wuhan and will beon stream in three to five years,while the rest are already in pro-duction. Source China Metals e-mail [email protected]

Asians incoal deal Japan’s Nikkei reported thatNippon Steel Corp and JFE SteelCorp, as well as South Korea’sPosco, have increased their stakesin an Australian coking coal project.

The three will buy their sharefrom Toyota Tsusho, which willoffload 13% of its rights inAustralian Integra Coal, selling2.35% each to Nippon Steel, theJFE Holdings unit and Posco.Their interests will increase to5.95% each.

The remaining 5.95% will bebought by Chubu Electric PowerCo, since the mine also producesregular coal for use in power gen-eration. The Integra Coal jointventure, located in New SouthWales, produces 3.3Mt/y of cokingand other coal and is expected tocontinue supplying these materialsfor another 20 years.

Brazilian resource major Vale SAholds a 61.2% interest, followed byToyota Tsusho with 28%. NipponSteel, JFE Steel and Posco eachown 3.6%.

The joint venture comprises anopen cut mine which began opera-tions in 1991, and an undergroundmine which started in 1999.

China to cut

steel groupsChina plans to cut the total num-ber of steelmakers to about 100 bythe end of 2015, state mediareported quoting officials at the2011 China Steel Planning Forumheld in Beijing.

By the end of 2015, China’s top10 steelmakers will represent 60%of the national steel output, upfrom the current 48%. Theplanned 100 or so regional steel-makers will be located across thecountry, with larger provinceshousing four to seven steelmakersand smaller ones housing one totwo, the reports said.

Also, most steelmakers will berelocated outside urban areas bythe end of 2015. In 2009, urbansteelmakers produced 228Mt ofcrude steel, 39.5% of the total out-put of large and medium-sizedsteelmakers. Currently 59 largeand medium-sized steelmakers,out of 76, are located in urbanareas.

Only last July (2010), Chinaintroduced regulations to cut thenumber of domestic steelmakersfrom about 800 to around 200 inthe next few years.

MMK-Atakas, a joint venture ofMagnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works(MMK) and Atakas Group, com-missioned an EAF facility atIskenderun, Turkey.

Commissioning of the facilitymeans construction of the MMK-Atakas plant has been practicallycompleted. Production will reach800kt/y later this year and exceed2Mt/y in 2012. The full capacity is2.3Mt/y of metal products.

The decision to build the plantwas made in May 2007. In July2007, MMK became the owner of50% plus one share. The TurkishAtakas Group owns 50% minusone share of the company.

At present, the plant includesthe cold-rolling mill, galvanizingand colour coating lines and two

service centres – in Iskenderunand Istanbul. The centres aredesigned to cut and slit coils andsheets and package the products.

To supply raw and input materi-als to the Iskenderun plant andship MMK-Atakas products to cus-tomers a sea port capable of cater-ing ships of up to 100 000 dwt wasbuilt next to the production site.

The project cost $2.1bn and isfinanced by shareholders’ funds aswell as borrowed capital.

The key equipment supplier forthe project is the Italian Danielicompany.

Victor Rashnikov, MMKChairman of the board, stated:“MMK-Atakas will solve the prob-lem of flat rolled products shortageon the Turkish domestic market.”

MMK-Atakas in EAFplan at $2.1bn plant

Wuhan Steel projectto break ground


APRIL 2011

27-29 CRU Latin American ironand Steel TrendsRio de Janeiro, Brazilwww.laironsteeltrends.com

MAY 2011

02-05 AISTech 2011 Indianapolis, USAwww.aist.org/aistech

12-14 4th China InternationalMetal Recycling ForumGuangzhou, Chinawww.mc-ccpit.com/recycling/en/index.asp

12-14 China InternationalMetals Industry Trade FairGuangzhou, Chinawww.mc-ccpit.com/en/conference.asp

23-26 2011 SEAISI ConferenceResorts World, Sentosa, Singaporewww.seaisi.org

23-26 Litmash MoscowMoscow, Russiawww.eventseye.com/fairs/f-metal-lurgiya-litmash-1820-1.html

JUNE 2011

02-03 7th Steel Markets EuropeBarcelona, Spainwww.steelbb.com/steelevents/sme11/

07-08 4th North African SteelConferenceCasablanca, Moroccowww.metalbulletin.com/events

20-22 Steel Success StrategiesXXVINew York, USAwww.amm.com/events

28-July 02 Metec Trade FairDusseldorf, Germanywww.metec.deFour conferences run concurrent withMetec, visitwww.steeltimes.com/events fordetails

AUGUST 2011

03-04 18th International SteelSummitKolkata, Indiawww.steelscenario.com

SEPTEMBER 201105 Steelmaking Technology inIndiaKolkata, Indiawww.steeltech-india.com

www.steeltimesint.comStatisticsEvents Diary www.steeltimesint.com

VISIT: www.steeltimesint.comTo see a full listing of industryevents click on ‘events diary’

For full listing of monthly statistics by country visitwww.worldsteel.org/?action=stats&type=steel&period=latest

World crude steel output rises 8.8%World crude steel production forthe 64 countries reporting to theWorld Steel Association (world-steel) was 117Mt in February2011 – 8.8% higher than inFebruary 2010.

China’s crude steel productionfor February 2011 was 54.3Mt, up

9.7% compared to February 2010. In the EU, Germany’s crude

steel production for February 2011was 3.7Mt, an increase of 7.9%compared to February 2010.

The US produced 6.6Mt ofcrude steel in February 2011, 5.6%higher than February 2010. The

world crude steel capacity utilisa-tion ratio of the 64 countries inFebruary 2011 was 82.0%, a slightincrease from the updated figureof 80.9% for January 2011.Compared to February 2010, theutilisation ratio in February 2011 is2.7 higher.

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USA Update

Renco’s acquisition of Sparrows Point generates great interest in US steel industry The Sparrows Point steel mill, in the process of being acquired by the Renco Group from Severstal US Holdings, has been in the news lately. The mill badly needs investment, estimated at $1bn, for modernisation and new equipment. By Manik Mehta, New York

decades of steel industry leadership thatincludes senior executive positions at US Steel,National Steel, Beta Steel and WheelingPittsburgh Steel.

Despite Goodwin’s impressive credentialsand expertise that will help him nurse back themills to health, his task is not going to be easybecause the Sparrows Point mill, which wasbuilt about 100 years ago by Bethlehem Steel,needs a large financial shot-in-the-arm in theform of working capital to restock its inputmaterials – iron ore, coking coal and steel slabat a time when prices have surged sharply.Another disadvantage for Renco is that, unlikeits competitors, it does not have any iron-oremines of its own.

AK SteelMeanwhile, AK Steel Corp recently announcedthat it had invested more than $180M to mod-ernise its speciality steel operations, mainly, atits Butler, Pennsylvania steel plant. The compa-ny announced that it had put in place a 175-ston capacity electric arc furnace and ladle fur-nace. AK Steel Corp’s president, CEO andchairman James Wainscott, said that the fur-naces will lower production costs while, at thesame time, increase steelmaking capacity andimprove product quality.

The new electric arc furnace replaces threeexisting arc furnaces dating from the 1960s,according to the AK Steel management. Thenew furnace will have a 40% greater productioncapacity than the previous three furnaces. TheButler plant produces flat-rolled electrical andstainless steel and semi-finished slabs.

Declining ImportsFor many steel industry executives, the news ofdeclining steel imports may have taken awayfrom them their ammunition, usually, aimed atso-called low-end suppliers, foremost of thesebeing China whose unfair trade practices areeuphemised as ‘currency manipulation’ and‘deliveries at prices below production costs’.

According to the American Iron and SteelInstitute (AISI), the steel industry’s trade asso-ciation in North America, the steel permitapplications for February 2011 totalled 1.815million net (or short) tons, down 13% from the2.081M ston permit recorded in January.

AISI’s February’s figures, based on the latestSteel Import Monitoring and Analysis (SIMA)data of the Department of Commerce, revealthat the largest finished steel import permitapplications were for Korea (161kst down 25%from January), Japan (128kst up 2%), Germany(70kst down 11%), Turkey (64kst up 168%),and Australia (53kst down 29%). The estimatedfinished steel import market share in Februarywas 18%.

Despite the decline in import applications,the AISI continues with its campaign to stopthe claimed dumping of Chinese products inthe US market. Chinese products, which areoffered through a cleverly-spun maze of unfath-

THE Renco Group, through its newly formed,wholly-owned subsidiary RG Steel LLC, hasagreed to buy the Sparrows Point steel mill,based in Baltimore, Maryland, as well asWheeling-Pittsburgh Steel in West Virginia andthe former WCI Warren mill in Ohio fromRussia-based OAO Severstal through its NorthAmerican subsidiary Severstal US Holdings,LLC. The transaction will add 7.5M stonscapacity to RG Steel and catapult it to the posi-tion of fourth-largest flat-rolled steel producerin the United States.

The deal also includes WheelingCorrugation, the shuttered Allenport stainlesscladding mill and a 50% share of Mount StateCarbon which will supply coke to RG Steel.Company headquarters will be at SparrowsPoint, Maryland.

The transaction, costing $1.192bn when debtand employee and environmental liabilities aretaken into account, still requires clearance bythe regulatory authorities.

However, a lingering question remains: manyanalysts wonder if Renco’s management,known to be slow or cautious in earmarkingmoney for modernising its facilities, will openup its purse strings and embark on the badlyneeded revamping of Sparrows Point and theother plants.

Renco, a privately owned investment compa-ny with assets of $5bn, will be Sparrow Point’sfifth owner in a matter of 10 years. SparrowsPoint, under Renco, will become active afterbeing idle for most of the time since the begin-ning of the financial crisis.

However, analysts are not sure that Renco’sboss, billionaire Ira Remmert, will hold on toSparrows Point any longer than the recent own-ers of the mill.

Remmert’s move will be closely monitored bythe industry. Renco previously owned theWarren Mill before losing control in bankruptcyproceedings in the mid 2000s.

Renco’s strategy, it would seem, will be torestart Sparrows Point’s hot strip mill and also,possibly, the blast furnace. The price of hot-rolled steel, which has risen sharply, has been anincentive to mill owners.

Other factors that favour the resumption ofSparrows Point is that demand in NorthAmerica has been strong while the steelmakingcapacity declined as a result of past closures ofsteel-production units.

Also aiding the development has been thedepreciation of the US dollar and rising costs inChina. These factors have given America’s steelindustry a sharp competitive edge againstimported steel.

Goodwin back to businessAlthough Renco may or may not invest moremoney in the Sparrows Point mill, it has hiredJohn Goodwin as CEO to manage the plantand the other acquisitions from Severstal locat-ed in Ohio and West Virginia. Goodwin hasstrong credentials, having spent more than four

omable subsidies, are a major irritant for USsteel producers who feel that the Chinese donot operate on a ‘level-playing field’.

Indeed, the AISI in a public statementrecently commended the CommerceDepartment for its preliminary determinationthat Chinese producers are circumventing anantidumping order on plate products throughthe addition of small amounts of boron.

“We are pleased to hear that the CommerceDepartment has taken action on what is one ofthe oldest tricks on the book, trying to slightlymodify the chemistry of a product to evadeantidumping orders,” AISI President and CEOThomas J Gibson, said.

“Particularly noteworthy is the fact that theCommerce Department decided, appropriately,to apply the antidumping order broadly to allChinese producers, not just the specificChinese producers found to be circumventing.This is a clear victory for US plate producers.Commerce will now collect cash deposits on allChinese boron-added plate, unless the produc-er can clearly verify that the product meets veryspecific additional testing requirements show-ing that the boron was actually added toimprove the characteristics of the steel to meetrequired specifications.”

“We are also pleased that (the) Commerce(Department) is going to move forward swiftlyon a quick schedule to render a final determi-nation,” Gibson said, adding that he was ‘posi-tive’ that the additional duty collected wouldbegin immediately, and cash deposits would beimplemented retroactively from April 2010.

Japanese EarthquakeThe ongoing tsunami and nuclear crisis unfold-ing in Japan is being closely watched by the USsteel industry. While the world stares in disbe-lief and empathy at the Japanese tsunami vic-tims and the resulting nuclear crisis, manyexperts in the United States believe that thetragedy in Japan will heighten interest in con-struction steel. A number of dailies in theUnited States have been reporting that housesbuilt in the earthquake-prone regions of theworld will now have to think anew of buildinghouses with steel that can withstand tremors.Indeed, as the New York Times said in a March11 article, an industry organisation is trying tofocus attention on its familiar product – steel –as a ‘potential life saver’.

“If Haiti had more buildings done to the rightstandards, they could have withstood the earth-quake,” Scott Chubbs, programme director ofLiving Steel, a consortium of companies that ispromoting steel for residential construction, isquoted as saying in The New York Times article.

While this may be exciting news for the steelindustry, it remains to be seen whether buildersand owners will completely resort to steel arch-es and frames for building residential houses,even though there is growing interest in increas-ing steel’s share in materials used for buildinghouses. �

USA_Layout 1 3/25/11 9:32 AM Page 1

January 2010. Pampa de Pongo’s deposit hasprojected reserves of 1.2bnt of iron grading at43.6%. The Chinese company began operationsin September 2010. It is expected that the10Mt/y iron ore project will come on stream by2014 - 2015.

Steel IndustryPeru has two steel producers, Aceros Arequipaand Gerdau Siderperu. Together they producedjust 879kt of crude steel in 2010. Although thiswas higher than in the previous year (718kt), itdid not regain the 2008 level of 1.0Mt.

Growth was much better in terms of apparentconsumption, which ranged from 2.2Mt in 2008through 1.6Mt in 2009 to 2.6Mt in 2010. Due tothe global financial crisis, the trade deficit aris-ing from steel imports temporarily droppedfrom 1.25Mt in 2008 to 670kt in 2009, but as aconsequence of robust demand in 2010 it hasmore than doubled since 2009 to 1.4Mt (Fig 1).

Peru produced 1.1Mt of rolled steel productsin 2010, of which 98% were long steel products– an increase from 91% in 2008. Constructionis the key consuming sector for long products.According to the Ministry of HousingConstruction & Sanitation, the level of activityin construction improved 17.4% in 2010 y-o-y.

Regarding financial performance, AcerosArequipa reported 2010 net sales of 1.94bnnuevos soles (approx $700M), up 17% over1.66bn nuevos soles in 2009, but down 10% incomparison with the 2.16bn nuevos soles in2008. Its profitability (defined as net profit/netsales) was 5.2% in 2008, -2.1% in 2009 and6.8% in 2010 (Fig 2). The company commis-


LA Update

Peruvian iron and steel industry is shining again

DURING the period 2001-2010, PeruvianGDP increased 5.7%/y, which was the top per-former among Latin American nations.Furthermore, in the past five years, the econom-ic growth accelerated and reached an outstand-ing 7.2% a year. This outcome is even moreremarkable as inflation remained relatively low.The social benefits were also crystal-clear: theproportion of poor inhabitants decreased from55% in 2001 to 35% in 2009; and the ratio ofextremely poor diminished from 24% to 11.5%.

The future perspectives of the Peruvian econ-omy are also very positive. As it can be observedin Table 1, the investment bank Citi foresees aGDP growth to 7.1% in 2011 and 6.5% the fol-lowing year. Investments, except for 2009, havealso shown substantial growth. Consumption isexpected to rise 5.2% this year and 5.4% in2012. Inflation seems to be under control.

Table 1 also demonstrates a modest fall inthe unemployment rate from 8.4% in 2008 to8.0% in 2010. A slight improvement for thislabour market indicator may be verified by2012. Last, but not least, Peru has generated atrade balance surplus in recent years as well asattracting considerable Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI). Nevertheless, the presiden-tial election this year may cause some marketturbulence.

Iron Ore ProductionThe largest iron deposits in Peru – Marconaand Pampa de Pongo – are located in a belt400km south of Lima. Marcona is owned andoperated by Chinese headquartered ShougangHierro Peru, since it was privatised in 1992. Atthat time, its nominal capacity was 4.5Mt/y. Itproduced roughly 6Mt of iron ore last year. Theoutput is mainly exported to its Chinese parentcompany Shougang, which has decided to goahead with a $1bn investment programme toexpand capacity to 10Mt/y of iron ore concen-trate within two years.

The other mine, Pampa de Pongo, was pur-chased by the Nanjinzhao Group of China fromCardero Resource Corp (Canada). The originaldeal was announced in October 2008 and val-ued at $200M, but was eventually reduced to$100M. The final tranche of $30M was paid in

South American countries have benefitted from the recovery of mineral commodity prices. This is particularly evident in Brazil,Chile, and Peru. Regarding the latter, the mining industry, under Chinese control, is growing in relevance to the country’s GDP,which explains part of the nation’s good economic performance. The steel industry, represented by just two producers, returnedto profit in 2010, but cannot meet domestic demand. By Germano Mendes de Paula*

*Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. Email [email protected]

sioned a 250kt/y long steel rolling mill during2010, aimed at meeting escalating domesticdemand. In March 2011, it announced that itwill construct a new 650kt/y bar mill, expectedto be inaugurated in 2012. The companyexpects the construction business will grow10% in 2011.

Gerdau Siderperu produces merchant bar,plate, strip and tube, making iron by both theblast furnace and DRI kiln routes. Gerdaubought 50% of Siderperu in June 2006. By theend of the same year, it had increased its hold-ing to 83.3%.

Currently, it owns an 86.7% stake in this sub-sidiary. Gerdau Siderperu net sales have plum-meted from 1.69bn nuevos soles in 2008 to1.16bn in 2009, but made progress to 1.30bn in2010 (around $470M). The respective prof-itability was 1.1%, -9.4% and 5.2%.

Gerdau Siderurperu announced in February2008 a $120M investment package for the peri-od 2011-2013, emphasising the modernisationof its BOF steel shop and environmental issues.The company is studying whether to invest anadditional $480M, depending on the develop-ment of the domestic and global steel markets,among other factors. In September 2008 thecompany had announced its intention to invest$1.4bn, but this plan was not put into practicein the face of the economic crisis.

Now, the resumption of investments is agood sign that the steel industry in Peru is expe-riencing better times. Or paraphrasing thename of country’s currency – ‘nuevos soles’which means ‘new suns’ in English; Peru’s steelindustry is newly shining.

Fig 2 Profitability of Peru’s two steel companies 2006-2010 (%)Source: Lima Stock Exchange

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

Table 1 Peru’s Macroeconomic Indicators, 2008-2012 Source: Citi

GDP Growth (%) 9.8 0.9 8.9 7.1 6.5

Investment Growth (%) 25.0 (20.9) 37.7 18.8 9.7

Consumption Growth (%) 8.0 3.9 6.1 5.2 5.4

Consumer Price Inflation (%) 6.7 0.2 2.1 3.1 2.8

Unemployment Rate (%) 8.4 8.4 8.0 7.7 7.6

Trade Balance ($bn) 3.1 5.9 5.2 5.6 6.9

Foreign Direct Investment ($bn) 6.9 4.8 7.9 7.8 8.3

Fig 1 Performance by product and net trade 2008-2010 (kt)Source worldsteel & ILAFA

LA_Layout 1 3/25/11 9:33 AM Page 1


CHINA Update

Supply exceeding demand in Chinese market

CHINA’ s crude steel output in 2010 increased9.3% to 626.65Mt year-on-year and the produc-tion utilisation rate reached 82%, according tostatistics provided by the China Iron & SteelAssociation. The output of steel climbed at atwo digit rate for the first five months, but thendropped dramatically from June to become anegative growth during August, September andOctober last year. Average daily production in2010 remained at 1.71Mt, ranging from a peakof 1.84Mt during April but dropped to a low of1.6Mt in September. Apparent consumption interms of crude steel reached 599.35Mt, in 2010,up 6.1% compared to 2009. The fluctuations insteel production lead to volatility in the price ofsteel, but generally speaking, the price duringthe whole year still picked up by 15.79% in 2010over the previous year.

Although steel companies in China increasedoverall production in 2010, profits in the indus-try continues to stay low due to rising inputcosts. Sales profit was pressed down to as lowas 2.91% which is much lower than the averagefor industries in China.

Industrial centralisation goneBased on China Iron & Steel Association statis-tics, the percentage of China’s steel for automo-bile, pipe & tube, silicon steel, ship plate, steelrail, etc was lifted significantly over 2009.Chinese steelmakers can now produce a rangeof value-added products from all the high-strength steel rail needed for the 350km/h highspeed rail network as well as high-strength sheetfor automobiles, a product developed in Chinaby Baosteel and Anshan Steel which, together,could totally satisfy domestic demand. Strip fordomestic appliances made in China can be usedfor various kinds of household appliances anddomestic stainless steel already accounts forover 30% of the total used in the market.

In 2010, crude steel output by China’s topten steel groups reached 304.73Mt represent-ing more than 48.43% of the total outputnationwide, and 3.41% above that of 2009.Although steel products are moving towardsoptimisation, crude steel output still accountsfor an overly high rate. High production direct-ly leads to climbing stockpiles by producers andon the market and disrupts the balance withsupply exceeding demand. These fluctuations

Increased costs for raw materials and slow demand in the domestic and international markets for steel have seen Chineseproducers’ profit margins drop to a little over 1.5%. By Shi Lili*

in production lead to the volatility of steelprices. But generally, the steel price during thewhole year picked up by 15.79% over 2009.

Low profitabilityFour causes are attributed to the falling prof-itability of China’s steel producers.

The cost of raw materials has risen by a largeamount which depressed the profits of steel-makers. Take iron ore for example, Chinaimported 618.64Mt in 2010 which was 9.13Mtless than the previous year, but the price it paidfor this lower amount increased $29.28bn to$79.427bn which added significantly to steel-making costs. Despite rises in efficiency, ironproduction costs which account for the maininput of steelmaking jumped 19.67% in 2010year-on-year. Also compared with 2009, theprice for ore fines jumped 46.44%, metallurgi-cal coke climbed 12.1% and coking coal was up26.44%.

Most participants in steel trading hold theopinion that there is little room for further priceincreases in the grades of steels produced andthe outlook remains the same. But there is littlechance of steel prices dropping due to theincreased raw material costs.

Anticipating that the European economy isshowing signs of warming, global iron oredemand continues to grow. The Chinese gov-ernment paid greater attention to eliminatingbackward capacities, forecasting that iron oreprices may drop again if supply exceedsdemand. However, the fact that iron ore sup-plies are dominated by three big mining compa-nies, BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale, andtheir monopoly provides them with power toprice the raw materials for steelmaking, there ismuch room for iron ore speculation despite thedrop in steel prices.

The net profit of BHP Billiton doubled toUS$14.3bn in 2010 over 2009 while Rio Tintoalso had an excellent performance seeing a 71%increase in profit to $17.6bn in 2010 with ironore playing a major role in pushing up the fig-ure. The costs of production of ore by these twogiants was less than $20/t while the selling pricefor iron ore is approaching $200/t.

Compared with the brilliant performance ofthe three main global iron ore suppliers,China’s steel companies experienced a difficulttime last year with average selling prices of over4000 yuan a tonne, or $615/t while the average

profit of the steel industry staying around 150yuan a tonne or $23/t. But it is generallybelieved that the high price of iron ore in 2011will accelerate expansions and exploration andthe resulting increased supply may change thepresent tight supply situation. It is expectedthat the increased output of iron ore by Valeand Rio Tinto in 2011 will reach 90Mt.

The overly supply of steel in the Chinesemarket compared with demand pushed downsteel prices. From May last year, the steel pricefell for four consecutive months and the priceindex declined 10.58% compared with that atthe end of April 2010. Under the dual pressuresof falling selling prices for steel and rising inputcosts, steel companies find it very difficult tomanage.

In April, China’s large and medium steelcompanies generated a profit of 12.234bn yuanor $1.88bn with profit margin at 4.53%; but theprofit had dropped to 2.86bn yuan by Augustwith the profit margin of just 1.45%.

China is cornered with many restrictions inexporting steel products. Certain product cate-gories had to be sold on the domestic marketand this aggravated over supply in China’sdomestic market. From July 15, 2010, theChinese government released a policy docu-ment restricting the outflow of low added valuesteel products. The tax rebate of 9% previouslyoffered for exporting certain steel types wasremoved. Such a policy greatly added to thecosts of exporting these steel grades.

Considering the lacklustre demand on theinternational steel market which resulted indeclining steel prices in other countries, thesmall margin on market prices on both interna-tional and domestic prices, have all made obsta-cles for China’s steel producers. The country’snet export of steel during the first half of 2010was 159.6Mt, representing 28.37% of the562.85Mt of total annual output. Under theinfluence of the national policy adjustment,steel exports dropped to 113.3Mt, a decline of29.04% from the first 6 months of 2010. Manyof the country’s steel producers changed theirfocus from the international to the domesticmarket.

Companies also tried to reduce output torelieve the pressure of large stockpiles. Alongwith the rebounds of production in Novemberand December last year, China’s steel prices arestill likely to fluctuate to a lower point. �*STI correspondent in China

China’s iron ore imports expected to rise 6%China's demand for imported ironore in 2011 is expected to rise by40Mt or 6% y-o-y on the back ofthe government's plan for a mas-sive housing project, ChinaChamber of Commerce of MetalsMinerals & Chemicals Importers& Exporters, (CCCMC),President Xu Xu said in midMarch.

The government plans to build10 million low income housingunits in 2011, which will boostdemand for steel products.

Demand for crude steel prod-ucts is expected to increase by 40-50Mt this year as compared to lastyear, said Xu Xu.

Source: Platts.

Chinese companies to tapiron ore deposits in ArmeniaFortune Oil Holdings Ltd a HongKong based and London listedcompany specialising in oil andminerals, recently signed agree-ments with several Chinese,Australian, British and Armeniancompanies to form a strategicalliance to develop iron oredeposits in Armenia.

Partners include Sinosteel

Equipment, China No20Metallurgical Construction Co,Ltd, ProMet International, SRKConsulting, and others. The newconglomerate will develop iron oreprojects possessed by Fortune Oil,who say their total reserves equal1.8bnt. Source: China Metals e-mail [email protected]

China_Layout 1 3/25/11 9:34 AM Page 1


Steelmaking

The DK process – for the recovery of ironand zinc from BOF dusts and sludgesThe DK process uses a blast furnace totreat 450kt/y of iron and zinc containingresidues from the European iron andsteel industry. DK is the only producer ofhematite pig iron in Western Europe withan annual production of 280kt and alsoproduces a zinc concentrate. By Dr Karl-Josef Sassen* & Dr-IngCarsten Hillmann**

DK was founded 135 years ago as DuisburgerKupferhütte. Its aim at that time was to pur-chase large amounts of pyrite on the world mar-ket for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Afterroasting the pyrite, DK recovered nearly everychemical element from the cinders – for exam-ple iron, copper, zinc, cadmium and even silverand gold.

With changing methods of sulphuric acidmanufacture and an extremely complex andexpensive process, the then owner, Rio TintoZinc, decided to close the plant in 1983. Due tothe legal requirement to clean up the site, RTZinstalled a trust to continue operations toprocess the remaining cinders on site. Whiledoing so, more industrial wastes were added tothe raw material mix and it became evident thatthe process could be operated using only indus-trial wastes.

In 1991 DK was renamed DK Recycling undRoheisen GmbH to give expression to what thecompany does: recycling of wastes and produc-tion of pig iron.

The company still belongs to a trust, meaningthat the employees own the company. The actu-al number of employees is about 250.

Situation on residuesMuch effort has been made by the steel indus-try to recycle as much iron residues as possible.The balance from the German steel industry in2006 shows that 72% of iron and steelmakingdusts are recycled, but still some 300kt/y of

and weighers to compose the material blend(Fig 3).

Another difference compared to a regular sin-ter plant is that cooling of the sinter is achievedin the final third of the belt – the ‘coolingstrands’ are used only as transport strands.

In 1999 DK built a second gas cleaning plantbehind the existing electrostatic precipitator tokeep the environmental limits for SO2 as wellas dioxins and furans within permitted limits.The plant consists of an injector for milk oflime, an injector for lignite coke and a bag filterfor capturing solids.

Although the raw materials have notimproved over the years, and if anything havedeteriorated in quality, sinter productivity hasimproved considerably to reach 64t/h or a spe-cific productivity of 24t/m2/24h (Fig 4).

Blast furnaceThe DK blast furnace plant consists of tworather small blast furnaces of which normallythe larger one, blast furnace #3 of 580m3 work-ing volume and 5.5m hearth diameter is operat-ing and the smaller BF#4 of 460m3 and 4.5mhearth is presently idle. Nominal output fromBF #3 is 1000t/24h and that of BF#4 whenworking 500t/24h. Iron is tapped every 2 hours,desulphurised and cast on a casting machine toform pigs weighing 8 to 10kg.

The gas cleaning of the furnace exhaust con-sists of two steps: a dry precipitation of coarsedust in the dust catcher and a wet scrubber

BOF dusts and sludges as well as BF sludge goto internal or external dumps (Fig 1).

A similar situation is found in otherEuropean steel industries which makes DK,with its location Duisburg in the middle ofWestern Europe, an ideal location to receivedusts to treat from across Europe.

DK presently processes 460kt/y of materialfrom nine different steelworks from sixEuropean countries together producing some77Mt of crude steel.

Raw material for DKBOF dust is the dominating portion in the rawmaterial mix accounting for 52.5% of the input(Fig 2). Sand is used to adjust the basicity andsmall amounts of iron ore are added to supplysome coarse particles to the mix to improvepermeability.

BOF dusts have a high iron content and gen-erally few detrimental elements, but there areBOF dusts with extremely high zinc contents aswell as blast furnace (BF) sludges with high car-bon contents (Table 1). Besides some difficultchemical compositions, the moisture contentalso varies between zero and 40% causing somedifficulties.

Sinter plantOther than that in a regular sinter plant, DKhas no blending bed. Mixing of the raw materi-als is by a grab crane. After mixing, the cranefeeds several bins under which runs a feed belt

H2O Fe Zn C S CaO

BOF dust 1 9.2 62.1 0.6 1.2 0.2 6.5

BOF dust 2 0.0 43.3 11.6 0.8 0.05 14.2

BF Sludge 34.3 22.9 3.7 34.7 1.4 3.5

Mill Scale 6.5 68.0 0.05 0.8 0.03 2.1

Iron ore 7.5 66.3 0.01 0.04 0.01 0.02

Table 1 Typical raw material compositions for DK Process (%)

*Managing Director; DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH; **Deputy Managing Director; DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH, Werthauser Straße 182; D-47053 Duisburg, Germany e-mail [email protected]

Based on a presentations to ‘Waste Recovery in Ironmaking and Steelmaking Processes’ IoM3,

London 13-14 Dec 2010

SP d

ust c

oars

eSP

dus

t fin

e

BF d

ust

BF sl

udge

BF ca

stho

use

dust

BOF d

ust/s

ludg

e co

arse

BOF d

ust/s

ludg

e fin

e

EAF d

ust

Other

s

500

0

250

Du

st a

nd

slu

dg

e i 1

0-t/

a

Fig 1 72% of iron and steelmaking dusts and sludges were recycledin Germany in 2006 Fig 2 Raw material mix for DK sinter production

Others7.3%

BOFdust

52.5%

BOFsludge

5%

BFsludge5.4 %

BF dust 0.1 %

Millscale

12.8%

Cokebreeze

2%Sand 4.3%

Cinder2.6%

Iron ore 7.6%

Element Wt %

Zn 65-68

Pb 1-2

C <2.0

Fe <1.5

F <1.0

Cl <1.0

Na <0.01

K <0.15

Table 2 Analysis ofDK Zinc concentratefrom BF

hillman_Layout 1 3/29/11 2:09 PM Page 1


Steelmaking

where the capture of fine dust which carries thezinc oxide takes place. The sludge from the wetgas cleaning is collected in a thickener andforms the second product of DK, the zinc con-centrate.

Great improvements in blast furnace produc-tivity have been achieved in the past 10 yearswith output now at 35t/h from about 25t/h in2000. The improvement until mid 2005 wasachieved by the introduction of process optimi-sation and further increased from mid 2006with the introduction of oxygen enrichment tothe air blast which ranges from 60Nm3 to120Nm3 per tonne hot metal. Oil injection isemployed at a rate of around 50kg/tHM toreduce the coke rate to 670kg/tHM.

Due to the extremely high zinc load in thefurnace of 38kg/tHM, the sludge from the fur-nace arrives as a zinc concentrate with 65 to68% of zinc content and very few impurities(Table 2). Compared to other secondary zincraw materials the low content of fluorides andchlorides are an advantage.

In 2007, the amount of zinc concentrateprocessed peaked at 17-18kt (wet weight)which was sold to a smelter where it resulted in

9750t of zinc metal, but this fell by nearly 50%in 2009 during the recession when 5000t ofmetal resulted.

Besides the capability to recycle a variety ofsteelmaking residues, DK produces high quali-ty foundry pig iron. Table 3 shows typical analy-ses of some of the iron grades produced whichnumber 80 different grades produced.

Recycling efficiencyThe success of a recycling process can be meas-ured by the amount of material which at theend of the process has to be treated as waste.The balance of DK in 2008 shows that less than1% of the 430kt of processed waste materialhad to be dumped (Fig 5). Table 4 shows a comparison of typical parame-ters of an integrated steelmakers blast furnacewith that of the DK blast furnace.

Table 5 compares the sintering process forDK and conventional sinter production.

In summary, the following factors influencethe feasibility of recycling dusts and sludgeswithin an integrated works making it more eco-nomic to send these materials to a specialistrecycler.

Quality Si Mn P S C Fe

DK MO 1.0-1.5 0.7-1.0 0.0-0.12 0.0-0.05 3.5-4.0 Rem

DK MIII 2.5-3.0 0.5-1.0 0.0-0.12 0.0-0.04 3.5-4.2 Rem

DK DKC 2.0-2.5 0.5-0.9 0.0-0.12 0.0-0.04 2.8-3.1 Rem

DK P-Eisen 2.0-2.5 0.5-0.8 1.2-1.7 0.0-0.04 3.5-3.8 Rem

DK Speigeleisen 1.0-2.0 14.0-15.0 0.0-0.15 0.0-0.04 4.0-5.0 Rem

Table 3 Some pigiron qualities of DK(wt %)

DK BF Conventional

Share of sinter in the burden % 100 40-60

Si-content pig iron Wt % 2-2.5 < 0.5

Slag amount kg/t HM 400-450 200-250

Zn burden kg/t HM 38 < 0.1

Alkali burden kg/t HM 8.5 2-3

%CO2/(%CO2+%CO) - ~ 30 ~ 50

Off-gas temperature °C ~ 350 ~ 120

Productivity t/(m³/24h) 1.4 2.5-3.5

Specific consumption of reducing agents kg/t HM 700-720 480-550

Table 4 Typical operating parameters of a conventional blastfurnace with that of the DK blast furnace

Unit DK SP Conventional

Strand area for sintering % 75 100

Coke Breeze consumption kg/t Sinter 20 40

Productivity t/m2/24h 24 40

Table 5 Comparison of DK Sinter plantversus conventional sinter plant

Fig 3 Flow throughsinter preparation

Fig 4 Improvement in sinter productivity Fig 5 Material balance of the DK process

– Extremely small particle sizes leads to loss inproductivity, especially during sintering;

– Residues can lead to higher emissions in thesinter plant, ie VOC, PCDD/F, heavy metalsetc.

– Zinc in the blast furnace leads to higher cokeconsumption, refractory loss, formation of accretions etc.

– Alkalis have a great impact on coke behav-iour in the blast furnace, leading to swelling of pellets etc.

– Although the content of valuables in the residues appears to be high enough for recy-cling, there are quantities of very harmful ele-ments present for stable and cost effective production.

Contact

DK Recycling und Roheisen GmbH, Werthauser Straße 182;

D-47053 Duisburg, Germany

e-mail [email protected] web www.dk-duisburg.de/

2008 figures

OUTPUTINPUT

tpy

Waste material

Slag zincconcentrate

Pig iron

Losses (CO, CO2,

H2O)

Reducingagentfluxes

800,000

400,000

0

t/h

70

60

50

40

1999 2005 2010

hillman_Layout 1 3/29/11 2:09 PM Page 2


Steelmaking

STRUCTURAL steel plates with high yieldstrengths can be produced by thermomechani-cal (TM) rolling and accelerated cooling, result-ing in a fine-grained material with excellentductility and high strength. The finalmicrostructure and mechanical propertiesdepend on the steel composition, the rollingparameters and the cooling conditions. Due tothe low residual element requirements, thesteels for these grades are generally producedthrough the BOF route, thus implying processtimes of about 40 minutes. It is therefore nec-essary to have a Ladle Furnace – VacuumDegasser (LF-VD) station that guarantees highprecision of the final chemical composition andtemperature, as well as a high throughput, inorder to match the BOF treatment times.

Combined LF-VD stationDanieli Centro Met and Danieli Automationhave designed a new combined LF-VD plantfor SSAB Oxelösund. The salient features ofthe combined LF-VD station are the twin tankcars containing the ladles that move to variouspositions under the multiple operational roofs.The station is aligned along the main meltshopcrane axis, with the following sequence of pos-sible tank car positions – Park #1, VD #1, LF,VD #2 and Park #2. Normally, tank car #1will range from Park #1 to the LF, but if neces-sary, providing that tank car #2 is withdrawn toPark #2, tank car #1 can then reach the VD#2 position also. The inverse also applies totank car #2.

Problems of a traditional VDOne of the most difficult problems in operatinga meltshop that includes a stand-alone VDremote from the LF is matching the BOF (or

A new combined LF-VD plant for SSAB Oxelösund equipped with twin tanks on movable cars to maximise productivity is meetingthe tight product quality requirements and has a new-generation, thermodynamics based metallurgical model to ensure the

required end point precision. Edited by R Sellan*, M Rinaldi* & R Coughlan**

EAF) cycle times, with the VD station evenassuming full availability of cranes. The caster,if multi-strand, faced with a delay in the arrivalof the next heat of a sequence has the option ofclosing one or more strands and/or reducing thecasting speed to accommodate this. For single-strand slab casters though, and especially thin-slab ones, these options are simply not avail-able. Some meltshops try to handle this situa-tion by reducing the vacuum degassing time,but obviously this is rarely a satisfactory out-come, especially if very low final hydrogen con-tent must be assured.

In many cases though, it can be the castingcranes that cause such delays; craning takes sig-nificant time itself, sometimes the crane is notavailable when required, sometimes its path isblocked, and so on. A new stand-alone VD willimply at least two extra crane movements perheat, and possibly also a significant ladle hold-ing time for any deslagging, if this should berequired. In several cases the process requiresthat the ladle also returns to the LF after treat-ment in the VD, so this requires two more extracrane movements per heat. There is always arisk of needing to reheat in the LF after the VD,even if some temperature margin is allowed. Inthe worst cases, eg deep decarburisation heats,two vacuum cycles per heat are needed. Takinga heat to the VD in order to perform both ofthese in succession implies needing to leave theLF at very high temperatures which stresses theladles and the VD or obliges extra coolingequipment to be installed on the LF.

An alternative is a more reasonable startingtemperature, but this requires a return to theLF for reheating between the two vacuum

cycles. Inserting a new VD into an existing plantthat was not originally designed for two canthen amplify any existing crane problems, espe-cially if the later VD also needs to be located inan awkward position, as nothing better is avail-able. This can then imply that some extra cranecapacity will also need to be provided.

Advantages of combined LF-VDThe introduction of a combined LF-VD stationparallel to the bay axis needs the same cranecapacity as would replacing an existing LF par-allel to the bay axis. But this configuration doesprovides some benefits compared to a separatesingle-car LF and twin VD station, and alsocompared to a twin-car LF station perpendicu-lar to the bay axis. Fig 1 illustrates the configu-ration at SSAB Oxelösund. The only plant con-figuration that can theoretically have some extraadvantages compared to the combined LF-VDstation parallel to the bay axis is that of the LFtwin-car + VD twin tank. This solution allowsone more treatment position in the bufferbetween the BOF (or EAF) and CCM, but itrequires more space, manpower, and crane time,and it is not practical for reheating after vacuumtreatments. In any case, it is not common tostart a CCM sequence with three ladles alreadyundergoing secondary metallurgy and anotherready to tap from the primary furnace, so inpractice there is no advantage provided.

The time, and hence also the energy, saved bynot needing to crane between separate stationscan be significant, and so tighter operating mar-gins become possible with a combined LF-VD.In addition to this, the tanks insulate the ladles,thus assuring lower thermal losses in both theLF and VD positions, as shown by the meas-ured heating rates which are higher than those*Danieli Centro Met; **Danieli Automation

SSAB’s combined LF-VD station reduces process time to better match the BOF cycle by using a laddle car to transfer between the ladlefurnace and vacuum degasser

Operational experience at the new LF-VD station at SSAB, Oxelösund

DANIELI_Layout 1 3/29/11 10:06 AM Page 1


The new plant configuration allows adecrease in the average crane utilisation indexof around 15% – compared to a traditionaltwin-LF + twin-VD solution.

EquipmentThe LF roof electrodes are supplied by a21MVA transformer of 16MW maximum activepower, using conducting-type electrode arms.Tight temperature control is assured by the pos-sibility of sampling for temperature and chemi-cal composition, as well as adding materials (viabatch hoppers and wire feeders) in all threeworking positions. Both vacuum roofs have avacuum batch hopper with a capacity that facil-itates the production even of non-oriented elec-trical steel grades, with Si contents up to 3%and the C content below 100ppm. Each of thethree positions is equipped with four wirestrands, with a maximum of two that can beused in parallel. Calcium wire addition isdefined on the basis of the metallurgical modelprediction and basically depends on the steeltemperature, sulphur content and dissolved Alcontent.

The average heating rate using the maximumtap voltage is close to 3.5°C/min, correspondingto an average specific energy consumptionslightly lower than 0.40kWh/(t °C). This lattervalue is superior to those for many other plants(0.42-0.46kWh/(t °C)), but the calculationsmade by the level 2 metallurgical models reflectthe actual plant results (Fig 2).

Both vacuum positions share a single four-stage steam ejector pump via a switch valve.Hydrogen is measured through Hydris©, withthe final H being consistently below 2ppm.

All the working positions (even the centralLF) are equipped with a television cameraallowing the process to be monitored. The con-trol pulpit, located remotely for increased oper-ational safety, has been designed to:

– offer complete process control for all the working positions;

– provide a clean and quiet working area; and– allow off-line simulations to be performed in

the actual plant.

Level 2 automation A single central level 2 (L2) server hosts themain Oracle L2 database and the DanieliAutomation background applications such asthe supervisor and model processes.

L2 Client applications: The L2 has several client-type user interface applications, which areaccessible from multiple PCs via CITRIXservers for the support staff, or else can belocked down to single CITRIX clients, for theoperators in the pulpits.

L1 interfacing: The PLCs for Level 1 plant floorcontrol were provided by SSAB, and are actual-ly PCs (SoftPLCs) running under the Linuxoperation system. The interfacing is performedvia binary message buffers sent under UDPprotocol.

L3 interfacing: The SSAB Level 3 supervisorycontrol is interfaced with the L2 using binarymessage buffers transmitted via DEC MsgQ. Inaddition to the standard L2-L3 data exchanges,the L3 also provides L2 with the laboratoryresults for the steel samples, and all communi-cations with the BOF L2.

Twin tank process practicesA heat starts in the LF-VD when the ladle isplaced into a tank car, and that it only stopswhen this ladle is taken out of it. To cover this,each planned or potential tank visit to a LF orVD roof is assigned a specific low-level practice,while a high-level practice is the ordered list ofthese low-level practices that covers the wholetime of the ladle in the tank. Those low-levelpractices that may not always be required, suchas a reheating after vacuum treatment, aremarked with an ‘optional’ flag and are only con-sidered for process planning calculations if theyare actually activated.

The L3 provides the time target for when agiven heat needs to leave the LF-VD for thecaster, and also the temperature at which itshould do so. The L2 calculates at frequentintervals, and also after the notification of eachsignificant process event, whether or not it isstill possible to meet these targets, reporting theoutcome to the L3 to assist it in planning futureactivities.

Metallurgical modelFor SSAB, a completely revised L2 metallurgi-cal model was introduced, featuring a compre-hensive all-inclusive thermodynamic basedapproach, instead of an assembly of weaklyinteracting separate entities. These are also self-contained in nature, without needing to resortto any external slag modelling systems forexample. The most important specific areascovered are:– Thermodynamic equilibrium;– Steel-Slag dynamic evolution;– Refractory wear;– Reoxidation from air;– Vaporisation of metallic elements;– Temperature estimation;– Additions dissolution times;– Ca treatment.

To obtain clean steel, it is desirable to avoidas far as is possible any Al additions after vacu-um treatment, so particular care is dedicated tothe Al trend, in order to achieve the desired Alcontent at the end of treatment without any fur-ther Al wire additions, and consequential inclu-sion modifications.

calculated for a standard ladle furnace. A com-bined station LF-VD offers far greater flexibili-ty for reheating after a vacuum treatment, evenfor those ‘emergency’ cases that temporarilyinterrupt the processing of another heat alreadyin the LF. There is also often the ready availabil-ity of the second VD position for use as a LFtrimming station that can potentially coverevery LF process operation except actual heat-ing, so as to free up the LF roof for heating.

SSAB LF-VD layout Prior to this project there were already limita-tions in both the capacity and the operationalpossibilities of the cranes at SSAB Oxelösundand they had also had a generally positive expe-rience with the existing SU station which was acombined LF-VD, but originally with only a sin-gle ladle car moving orthogonally to the castingbay axis. At a later stage, a second ladle car wasintroduced, giving some extra benefits but atthe cost of often having either to swap theladles between the ladle cars for the other ladleto be vacuum treated, or to interrupt the LFtreatment of one heat to get the other one outof the station.

In their chronological order for a heat, andalso effectively in the same layout order alongthe main crane axis of travel, there are the fol-lowing stations:

– BOF;– TN (preliminary deoxidation and

desulphurisation);– Slag rake;– LF-VD; and– CCMs (two close to each other).

The TN takes the tapped ladle from the BOFwithout any craning, but then occupies thecommon ladle car while treating this heat. Inthe casting bay as a whole there are two heavycranes, needed to cover:

– BOF/TN;– LF-VD station (previously an ASEA

SKF SU);– CCM.

Steelmaking

LDLD

1

3

2

4

5

7

6

8 9

11

10

17

16

19

18

13

12

15

1420

Fig 1 Layout of LF-VD station at SSAB Oxelösund1 Vacuum tank on car; 2 Vacuum cover; 3 Vacuum switch; 4 Textile filter;5 Vacuum pump; 6 Batch hopper; 7 Sampler, VD; 8 Wire feeding, VD; 9 Heating station/Ladle furnace; 10 Alloy hopper; 11 Sampler, LF; 12 Wire feeding, LF; 13 Emergency lance(option); 14 Trafo room; 15 Electrode jointing station; 16 Materials handling system;17 Material bins 2X16 m; 18 Floor bins; 19 Control room; 20 Slag rake



L2 systems for other plantTo obtain the maximum integra-tion and benefits from the newLF-VD, SSAB also ordered newL2 systems for the other meltshopprocess areas at the same time.These use the same server, data-base and new metallurgical modelas the L2 for the LF-VD.

These L2 systems summarisedin Fig 3 cover:

– BOF (target aim analyses, tap-ping additions);

– TN (deoxidation and prelimi-nary desulphurisation prior to further treatments);

– SU (used mainly as an auxiliaryLF, for the less demanding heats and unplanned reheat-ings etc).

Off-line simulation &replayUsing an off-line duplicate of theproduction L2 system, typicallywith a recent copy of the databasefor this, it is possible to run heatsin real time, using an extraPLC/L1 simulation application.With such a system it is possible tosimulate heats with existing prac-

tices, trial new practices andgrades, perform training and test-ing of software upgrades, andso on.

In the production system, themessages exchanged between thevarious L2 processes themselves,and also between the L2 and theL1 and L3 interfaces, are record-ed. Using an extra message replay-ing application, it is possible to‘repeat’ a given production heat ina suitably configured off-line L2system, in order, for example, toinvestigate the effects of changesto one or more model parameters.

It is also possible to combine thetwo possibilities above, ie replayinga past heat up to a certain point inthe process, and then take it overmanually using the PLC/L1 simu-lation to explore alternative strate-gies to the one actually used inproduction.

Thus, one of the most difficultproblems in operating a meltshopwith a stand-alone VD remotefrom the LF has been overcomeby reducing the transfer timebetween LF and VD by means oftwo dedicated ladle cars instead ofrelying on cranes, and so bettermatch the BOF cycle time.

Steelmaking

(PWS PC)

Production Status

Metallurgical DataProduction Data

Level 2Operator Workstation

Production StatusModel Results

Production Data

Process CommandsManual Process data

Process Set-UpCommands

Production EventsProduction Data

Process Data

Level 2 Server

Level 1 PLC's

L3 Computer

Grade DefinitionsProduction ProgramLaboratory Analyses

BOF DataLadle Setdown/Pickup

Wire Spool DataMaterials Data

Lances Usage Data

Process Route DataProduction ReportsProduction Status

Level 1HMI's

Operative Commands

Machine Status/Data

(Ancillary PC)

Reports

Fig 3 Level 2 compo-nents and interfacewith L1 and L3

1500 1520 1540 1560 1580 1600 1620 16401500

1520

1540

1560

1580

1600

1620

1640

L2 p

redi

cted

tem

pera

ture

[°C]

Measured temperature [°C]y = 1.000xR2 = 0.952

Fig 2 Example of thehigh correlationbetween predictedand measured temperature usingthe new level 2 metallurgical model



Steelmaking

Laboratory study on the addition of BOFsludge to the sinter blendTo assess the influence of the addition of BOF sludge in thesintering process, laboratory pot sintering studies wereconducted using BOF sludge from Durgapur Steel Plant both inthe as received condition and as micro-pellets. In both forms,the yield and strength of sinter was improved with only a smallpenalty in productivity in the case of unpelletized sludge. A K P Singh*, Dr M T Raju** & Dr Usha Jha***

BASIC Oxygen Furnace (BOF) sludge consistsof fine solid particles (80% below 38μ) whichare recovered after wet cleaning of the gas thatemerges from BOF converters. These particlesare rich in oxides of iron and also have a highamount of CaO. The moisture is in the range of35-40% which causes it to become sticky afterlong exposure to air1. The composition andphysical nature makes it a problem if disposedof because it causes environmental pollution.

Typically, 27kg of sludge is generated pertonne of crude steel – measured on a dry basis2.This BOF sludge, besides having very high andvaluable iron oxide and lime content, may alsocontain Zn, Pb, etc but the content of these isminor at Durgapur as galvanised scrap is notnormally charged there.

To make full use of its iron and lime contentand to overcome environmental problems asso-ciated with its disposal, efforts are underway torecycle the sludge in integrated steel plants.Attempts have been made to recycle the sludgein the BOF, to sinter plants and even direct toblast furnaces. Of these three, the sinter plant isthe preferred route, mainly because thestrength requirement for agglomerates ofsludge is least when blended with the mix forsintering. The sludge has been added to the sin-ter bed in different forms; with some initialconditioning without agglomeration, in slurryform and as pellets/micro-pellets.

At a works in southern France, the slurry ispumped directly to the sinter plant and sprayedinto the mixing drum. In a plant at Italy, thesludge is pumped as slurry through a pipeline tothe sinter plant, where it is used in the primarymixer to humidify the sinter charge3. In Taiwan,China Steel Corporation (CSC), uses themajority of its sludge, in slurry form, for sinter-ing purposes4-7.

When BOF sludge is directly added to thesinter strand it is essential to dry it to an appro-priate moisture level prior to addition. Apartfrom filtration, the methods generally appliedfor removing moisture include mixing with drysolid waste fines and drying in rotary driers.

Direct use of dried/blended sludge may beexpected to adversely affect the productivity ofthe sinter line because the use of fines deterio-rates the permeability of the sinter bed. To solvethis problem, micro-pelletization of the fines,before charging to the sinter machine is widelypracticed. Following drying, the sludge is gener-ally agglomerated to a size compatible with thesinter charge mix. Users have applied variousmethods of drying and agglomeration for using

*General Manager, Research & Development Centre For Iron & Steel, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Ranchi 834002, Jharkhand, India. e-mail [email protected]

**Deputy General Manager, Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel, Steel Authority of India Ltd, Ranchi - 834002, Jharkhand, India.

***Head of The Department, Applied Chemistry, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India.

the sludge in the sintering process8-10.To assess the influence of additions of BOF

sludge on the sintering process, pot sinteringstudies were conducted in the laboratory at

Adding BOS sludgeto the sinter linemakes substantialsavings in ore andlime

Size mm %

-0.5 mm, +0.15mm

(-0.5mm, +100mesh) 1.01

-0.15mm, +0.075mm

(-100mesh, +200mesh) 92.93

-0.075mm, +0.044mm

(-200mesh, +325mesh) 5.05

-0.044 mm (-325 mesh) 1.01

Table 1 Size of BOF sludge

Element %Fe (available) 53.72

Fe2O3 76.75

CaO 16.16

SiO2 2.62

MgO 2.38

P2O5 0.31

Table 2 Chemistry of BOF sludge

Material Moisture Granulometry of micro-pellets % Drop strength

(%) +5mm +3mm +1mm -1mm +5mm 2-5mm

Pellet Pellet

BOF = 100%

Lime =0.0% 12.5 12.13 75.68 10.3 1.24 >10 >20

BOF=66.6%

Lime=33.3% 19.5 3.8 44.7 40.27 11.2 12 >30

Table 3 Micro pelletization of BOF sludge

SAIL RDCIS. BOF sludge, received fromDurgapur Steel Plant, was used in the ‘asreceived’ condition and also as micro-pelletsusing two sets of raw charge mix. The rate ofaddition of sludge, in both base mixes, was var-ied from 0, through 10 to 20kg/t and the per-formance parameters analysed.

Laboratory TrialsBOF sludge was transported from DurgapurSteel Plant, along with other raw materials, insealed bags. The moisture content of the asreceived BOF sludge was around 6%. A repre-sentative sample of the sludge was dried andanalysed for particle size. The result is present-ed in Table 1 which shows 99% of the sludgewas below 100 mesh, clearly indicating that it isan ultra fine sludge.

Analysis showed the BOF sludge to be rich iniron at around 77% Fe2O3 (54% Fe content)and 16% CaO. Very little P2O5 was present.The composition is given in Table 2.

Micro-pelletization Experiments were conducted to study the suit-ability of the sludge to be formed into micro-pellets typically 2-5mm maximum dimension.

singsh sail rdcis_Layout 1 3/25/11 10:18 AM Page 1


Steelmaking

For this purpose, a laboratory scale EirichTransweigh high intensity mixer was used.Initially, the mixer parameters were optimisedto micro-pelletize the BOF sludge alone. Later,BOF sludge (66.6%) and lime (33.3%) weremicro-pelletized together. In each trial, thedrop strength of the micro-pellets was meas-ured. The results are given in Table 3, andclearly indicated that BOF sludge withoutbinder can be converted into suitable micro-pellets with a drop strength of over 20 for 2-5mm size pellets.

Pot sintering studiesPot sintering studies were conducted usingBOF sludge as received and also in the form ofmicro-pellets. Two different base mixes wereused ‘A’ and ‘B’ to which each was either added10kg/t or 20kg/t of BOS sludge both in the asreceived condition and as micro-pellets.Different iron ore fines were used in each of thetwo base mixes. The targeted basicity of the sin-ter was 2.0 in both cases and the MgO contentwas 2.8% in mix (A) and 2.5% in mix (B).

To achieve this target sinter chemistry, chargecalculations were made to estimate the rawmaterial consumption with nil, 10kg/t and20kg/t of BOF sludge added as sludge ormicro-pellet for both base charge mixes A andB. The results are shown in Tables 4 and 5.

It is clear that by using 20kg/t of BOF sludgethe consumption of iron ore and lime stone isreduced by 16kg/t (1.9%) and 7kg/t (11.6%)respectively in case of charge mix (A). The pat-tern is similar in respect of these two ingredi-ents for charge mix (B), although the drop inlimestone consumption is much higher at11.5kg/t (56.3%) than in mix (A) while the ironore consumption drop is less at 11.2kg/t (1.2%).

Also, in mix B, the dolomite consumptionincreased.

The bed height was kept constant at 550mmfor all the experiments. The under grate suctionwas 1300mm water column for mix (A) and1250mm water column for mix (B) for all theexperiments. This was chosen to match theparameters used at Sinter Plant #2 atDurgapur.

Effect of sludge on sinterThe pot sintering parameters measured on sam-ples from base mixes A and B for the differentaddition rates of BOF sludge, both in the asreceived and in the micro pellet form, were:vertical speed of sintering (VSS); Specific pro-ductivity (Prod +5mm), Tumbler Index (DTI)and Burn through temperature (BTP) ie themaximum temperature attained in the windboxes during sintering. (Tables 6 & 7).

Sludge as receivedWhen BOF sludge was added in the ‘asreceived’ condition to the sinter blend the ver-tical speed of sintering (VSS ) fell in both trialbase mixes A & B for both 10kg/t and 20kg/tsludge additions. The specific productivity(Prod) also fell significantly in both cases butthe yield improved and the quality of sinterincreased as indicated by the Tumbler Index(DTI) with increasing addition of BOF sludge.

Sludge as micro-pellets When BOF sludge was added as micro-pellets asignificant improvement in VSS and specificproductivity was observed in both A and B tri-als. Also the quality of sinter improved, as indi-cated by the improvement in DTl.

In conclusion, it is evident that additions of

BOF sludge to the sinter mix either as sludge ormicro-pellets will result in reduced consump-tion of limestone in particular, as well as ironore, during sintering. This will result in a reduc-tion in the cost of producing sinter as well asreducing the environmental impact by remov-ing the need to dispose of sludge.

If additions are made in the form of micro-pellets the productivity, yield and quality of thesinter is improved. If made as sludge, a smalldrop in productivity is the penalty but yield andquality still improve.

Since BOF sludge can be micro-pelletizablewithout addition of binder, the only penalty ofpelletizing is the additional cost of pellatizingcompared to adding as received dried sludge.

References1 S L Gau, K C Lee, J S Kuo and J L Mou:Iron making conference proceedings, 1991,5522 V G K Murty, H N Prasad, A S Prasad, S K Verma, M KSinha and S N Sinha, Tata Search, 1995, 123 3 The Management of Steel Industry, By Products andWaste, Report of Committee of Environment Affairs, IISI,Brussels, Oct 1987 4 S L Gau, K C Lee, J S Kuo and J L Mou, 1999 IronMaking conference proceedings, 555 5 Y F Chiu and T H Hung, McMaster Symposium No21,1993,109 6 Chiu Y F, Hung T H ; Technology and Training (Taiwan)19, (1), 1994,128 7 Chiu Y F; Technology and Training (Taiwan) 27, (6),2002,70 8 Dr Carsten Hillmann, Christopher M Moore,Dr Karl-Josef Sassen, AISTECH 2007 9 Chulho Kim, Songmook Jung, 1997 Iron making confer-ence Proceedings, 457 10 Harvey Abramowitz and Shank R Balajee, Proceedings ofthe Institute for Briquetting and Agglomoration, Vol 20, 1987

Parameter BOF sludge rate kg/t in mix A

Nil 10 (as 20 (as 10 (Micro 20 (Micro

received) received) pellets) pellets)

Material BOF sludge rate kg/t in mix A

(kg/t) Nil 10 % 20 %

kg/t Change kg/t Change

Iron ore 841 833 -0.95 825 -1.90

Lime stone 60 56 -6.6 53 -11.6

Dolomite 125 125 0.0 124.6 -0.3

Coke 75 75 0.0 0.0 0.0

BOF slag 50 50 0.0 50 0.0

Mill scale 20 20 0.0 20 0.0

Table 4 Specific consumption of raw materials (wet) for mix (A)

Iron ore 926.0 919.7 -0.68 914.8 -1.20

Lime stone 20.4 14.6 -28.4 8.9 -56.3

Dolomite 110.0 111.4 +1.27 112.7 +2.4

Coke 70.0 70.0 0.0 70.0 0.0

BOF slag 15.0 15.0 0.0 15.0 0.0

Mill scale 15.0 15.0 0.0 15.0 0.0

Table 5 Specific consumption of raw materials (wet) for mix (B)

Table 6 Effect of addition of BOF sludge on sintering for chargebase mix A

VSS mm/min 16.52 15.33 14.73 16.41 16.70

Yield +5mm % 73.74 77.0 78.59 80.16 77.32

Prod +5mm t/m2h 1.17 1.13 1.13 1.25 1.24

DTI % 65.2 67.06 79.8 68.93 71.2

BTP oC 478 610 630 618 615

Parameter BOF sludge rate kg/t in mix B

Nil 10 (as 20 (as 10 (Micro 20 (Micro

received) received) pellets) pellets)

Table 7 Effect of addition of BOF sludge on sintering for chargebase mix B

VSS mm/min 17.74 16.46 15.75 17.65 17.93

Yield +5mm % 58.28 62.25 63.18 63.79 62.83

Prod,+5mm, t/m2h 0.99 0.95 0.92 1.01 1.05

DTI % 46.3 47.1 49.4 47.2 47.3

BTP oC 597 636 636 626 587

(kg/t) Nil 10 % 20 %

kg/t Change kg/t Change

Material BOF sludge rate kg/t in mix A

Crude steel output by Plant FY 2009/10 (Mt)

Plant State Crude Steel CommentBhilai Steel Plant Madhya Pradesh 5.109 Longs

Bokoro Steel Plant Bihar 3.599 Flats

Rourkela Steel Plant Orissa 2.128 Flats

Durgapur Steel Plant West Bengal 1.966 Longs & skelp

Indian Iron & Steel West Bengal 0.400 Longs

Alloy Steels Plant West Bengal 0.167 (alloy) FY 08-09

Salem Steel Plant Tamil Nadu 0.100 (alloy) FY 08-09 HRC

Visvesvaraya Karnataka 0.103 (alloy)

Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Maharashtra Ferro Alloys Subsidiary

Government owned Steel Authority of India(SAIL) is India’s largest steel producingcompany. With a turnover of Rs 439.350bn(US$9.75bn), the company is one of fourMaharatnas of the country’s Central PublicSector Enterprises.

SAIL has five integrated steel plants,three special alloy plants, and one subsidiaryin different parts of the country.

In FY 2009-10, SAIL produced 13.5Mtof crude steel – 20.8% of India’s total out-put, and 9.69Mt of finished carbon steel –17.1% of India’s total.

In addition, SAIL has a well-equipped

Research and Development Centre for Ironand Steel (RDCIS) at Ranchi, its own in-house Centre for Engineering andTechnology (CET), a Management TrainingInstitute (MTI) and Safety Organisation atRanchi.

Its’ captive mines are under the controlof the Raw Materials Division in Kolkata.The Environment Management Divisionand Growth Division of SAIL operate fromtheir headquarters in Kolkata. Almost all theplants and major units are ISO Certified.

www.sail.co.in

Steel Authority of India

singsh sail rdcis_Layout 1 3/25/11 10:18 AM Page 2


Steelmaking

Reduction in steel defects by improvedsteelmaking in a Twin-Hearth furnace Defects at the hot section mill originating from steelmakinghave been halved as a result of modifying the steelmaking anddeoxidation practice in the twin hearth furnaces at IISCO, Indiato accommodate the widely varying Si and P content of theblast furnace hot metal charged.By *Somnath Kumar, N N Jha, A K Mukherjee, PK Sinha,& U Ganguly

THE former Indian Iron & Steel Company(IISCO), located at Burnpur, West Bengal –now part of the Steel Authority of India andknown as ISP – is equipped with two twinhearth furnaces (THF), each with two 110tcapacity baths. These furnaces normally pro-duce semi killed steels, partial deoxidationbeing achieved by the addition of ferro alloys tothe ladle and aluminium to the tapping streamas deoxidants. The semi-killed steel is teemedfrom the ladle into ingot moulds to producerimming ingots for rolling in the heavy sectionmill for eventual production of light, mediumand heavy sections and railway rail. Output ofcrude steel in FY 2009-10 was 400kt and rolledsteel 330kt.

The problem faced by the ISP steel meltingshop (SMS) is a wide variation in the quality ofhot metal coming to the blast furnaces. Thevariation makes it difficult for the operator tochoose an optimum charge mix. This resulted ina low level of dissolved oxygen (<50ppm) inthe steel produced and a high level of Si (0.06 -0.085%) indicating over deoxidation of the tar-get semi killed steel. Over deoxidation of thesteel together with a low teeming temperature(<1550°C) leads to the generation of steeldefects during ingot casting which are carriedthrough to rolling.

To counter these problems, a nomogram hasbeen developed based on theoretical and col-lected plant operating data. This helps the fur-nace operators to determine the optimumcharge mix ie the amount and sequence ofscrap, flux and iron ore charged for refining andtemperature control to achieve the desired finalsteel chemistry. A strategy for a modified deox-idation practice without the use of aluminiumhas been formulated. After implementation ofthese measures the monthly figure of steeldefects in the Heavy Structural Mill came downfrom 6.4% to average 3.2% in the period April2010 to January 2011.

The two oxygen blown twin hearth furnaces(THF) replaced conventional Open Hearth fur-naces at IISCO. The design follows that of aRussian built THF installed at Bhilai Steel Plantand the first was hot commissioned at IISCO on26 December 1998 and second in May 2004.

The 110t heat size provides a capacity ofaround 500kt/y. The problem faced at ISP is awide variation in hot metal chemistry withrespect to silicon, phosphorous and sulphur andalso metal temperature. Si sometimes reachesas high as 2.4% and P can attain any value from0.19 to 0.5% over a period of time. Analysis ofthe hot metal is not available prior to decidingthe charge of flux, ore and scrap to be preheat-ed ready to accept the hot metal. The amount

coolant) while the other is in use for steel refin-ing. The cold scrap and other charge materialsin this ‘first’ hearth is pre-heated by directingthe gases from the adjacent (second) hearthwhich imparts physical heat and chemical heatby post combustion. When pre-heating is com-plete, liquid iron from the blast furnace ispoured onto the preheated charge in the firsthearth and oxygen blowing started. The direc-tion of gases in the furnace is now reversed bygate valves, and the second bath is tapped. Thecycle is then repeated with the second hearthcharged with cold charge and preheated withthe flue gases from the now refining first hearth(Fig 1).

The slag from the twin-bath furnace has ahigh concentration of iron oxides therebyreducing yield.

The usual charge consists of 85% hot metaland 15% scrap. The design duration of theTHF cycle is five hours, with tapping of onehearth every 2.5 hours.

In the conventional practice, for 110t of hotmetal, six boxes (~12t = 73% of the totalscrap) of light scrap is first charged to cover thehearth bottom followed by six boxes of lime-stone (~10.8t) and one box of iron ore (~ 2t),and then the remaining amount of scrap(~4.5t) as heavy pieces. The charge is then pre-heated for an hour by the flue gases from theother hearth before charging the hot metal fromthe blast furnace. The two oxygen lances arethen lowered from the roof and blowing com-menced. Refining time varies between 2.5 tothree hours depending on the refining load andfurther iron ore and limestone is added ascoolant to control the degree of superheat.

Theoretical Consideration The sequence and proportions of charge; scrap– limestone – iron ore – scrap; has the greatesteffect on furnace operation. In the conventionalpractice, the hearth bottom is first covered withabout 12t of light scrap, on top of which all ofthe lime is charged in the form of limestone forflux along with part of the iron ore as coolantfollowed by the remaining ~4t of scrap. After

of flux, ore and scrap is thus estimated on thebasis of the previous heat tapped.

A Mixer to take the blast furnace metal isavailable but as its capacity is only 500t, metalfrom the blast furnaces, (BF#2 produces650t/d and BF#3 1000t/d) is usually poureddirectly into the furnace and hence there is awide fluctuation in hot metal composition fromladle to ladle. Blast furnace slag carry over isalso substantial. The refining time varies over awide range depending on the input hot metalcomposition and required steel chemistry.

The conventional practice for deoxidation toproduce semi killed steel is by addition of highcarbon ferro manganese (HCFeMn), silico-manganese (SiMn), ferro-silicon (FeSi) and petcoke to the ladle prior to tapping and then addaluminium to the metal stream during tappingto the ladle.

The result tends to be a too low level of dis-solved oxygen (<50ppm) and high level of Si(0.06 - 0.085%) indicating over deoxidation fora semi killed steel grade where the desiredrange of dissolved oxygen is 60-70ppm and Si0.04-0.06%. Such over deoxidation along with alow teeming temperature (<1550°C) causedefects in the cast ingot.

Work was undertaken to optimise the THFsteelmaking practice and deoxidation practiceto achieve a reduction in steel defects andimprovement in steel quality. After implementa-tion of the measures for improvement themonthly number of steel defects in the HeavyStructural Mill came down from the previousaverage of 6.4% to an average of 3.2% in the 10months to January 2011.

Conventional Practice &ConstraintsThe twin-bath furnace is a modified version ofthe open hearth furnace. The furnace has twohearths with a common roof, the hearths beingconnected by an air opening for the transfer ofcombustion products from one hearth to theother.

One hearth is patched and charged withscrap, lime stone (as flux), and iron ore (as

The authors are with Research

& Development Centre for Iron

& Steel (RDCIS), Steel Authority

of India Ltd Contact author

e-mail somnath07@

sail-rdcis.com

Charging a Mixer with blast furnace iron

Kumar_Layout 1 3/29/11 10:18 AM Page 1


Steelmaking

preheating, around 110t of blast furnace hotmetal is added (as approximatly 1250kg of totalmetallic charge is required per tonne of crudesteel). The carbon dioxide evolved from thelimestone on adding this hot metal and startingthe oxygen blow agitates the bath to give thelime boil1. A hot metal charging rate of one t/m2

of hearth area per hour are considered optimal2.The remaining ore is added as required to con-trol the superheat.

The literature3 advises a modified chargingpractice. The first batch of charge should beonly 20-30% of the total scrap charge and con-sist of small-size clean scrap. This is followed byall of the limestone and iron ore and finally, theremainder of scrap is charged into the furnace.Following preheating, the hot metal is addedand the oxygen blow commenced.

To attain sufficient dephosphorisation, it isnecessary to lower the silicon content of the hotmetal to ~0.1% and the temperature shouldnot exceed 1350 to 1450°C as P removalbecomes difficult at higher bath temperatures.Thus the superheat needs to be controlled.

In the conventional practice, to control thephosphorus as well as the high superheat, bathfeeding of iron ore and limestone was used.Extra blowing of oxygen was also employed inan attempt to remove phosphorus but with lit-tle success and this led to increased iron loss.

TrialsIt is difficult for the operators to adjust thelimestone flux charge as the quality of hot metalvaries widely. So, a nomogram has been devel-oped based on theoretical considerations andplant data collected over time as shown in (Fig2). This correlates the primary THF operatingparameters such as hot metal (HM) weight,HM analysis, final slag basicity, limestone, oreand oxygen requirement.

Factors such as steel composition, oxygenefficiency, slag FeO, scarp quality, and CO/CO2ratio are assumed constant. Certain operationalmodifications were also suggested to further fixthe melt control anomalies. The initial bathphosphorous varies from 0.085% to 0.15% andthe final bath target is 0.05% P.

To overcome the problem of refining the highphosphorus iron, steel processing has beenmodified with regards to the amount of iron oreadded to the bulk charge to cool the bath andits sequence in the charge.

Any increase in limestone consumption wasto be avoided but rather a change in chargingand heating practice introduced.

In the modified process a ‘sandwich’ type ofcharging sequence is adopted. Nearly half of thescrap is put on the hearth bottom in the form ofclean light scrap, then all of the limestone and allof the iron ore layered on this followed by the

remaining half of scrap as heavy pieces. To over-come the problem of high phosphorus in the hotmetal, the steel processing has been modifiedwith respect to the amount of iron ore in thebulk charge and the charging sequence.

Preheating of the charge mix with a tar burn-er as well as the flue gas was introduced toensuring good flushing of slag and to achievethe desired level of phosphorus at the start.

The changes to the charge required the scrapratio to be increased from 16-17t in the conven-tional practice to 18 to 28t depending on thehot metal composition. Limestone remainedthe same at 11t for Si 1.5% but was reducedto 9t for lower Si iron.

Trials were carried out in phases with modifi-cations in the charging and refining practicedepending on the hot metal composition byreferring to the nomogram.

Case – 1: Si <1.2% & P 0.25Scrap (12t) Limestone (9t) Iron ore (2t)

Scrap (12t)

Case – 2: Si >1.2 1.5% & P 0.25Scrap (16t) Limestone (9t) Iron ore (4t)

Scrap (12t)

Case – 3: Si 1.5% & P 0.25%Scrap (16t) Limestone (11t) Iron ore (4t)

Scrap (12t) Iron ore (2t)

Conventional: Si <1.2 – 2.4% & P 0.19 – 0.5%Scrap (12t) Limestone (11t) Iron ore (2t)

Scrap (5t) ore/lime to bath

The charge sequence is:1)Charge a box of steel scrap through each of

the three doors in the furnace to build up aneven layer on the hearth and repeat until all of the initial scrap charge is completed.

2)Charge all the limestone into the hearth lay-ered on top of the scrap;

3)Charge one tonne of iron ore at the tap holeto facilitate easy opening of the tap hole; thencharge all the remaining iron ore as a layer;

4)Allow 20-30 minutes of heating, if the ore charge is 4t or more use the tar burner to supplement the flue gas heat;

5)Charge the remaining scrap and continue thepre-heat for a further 15-30 minutes;

6)Charge the hot metal.The total metallic input (TMI) required is

around 1230kg for each tonne of crude steel.The TMI mainly includes hot metal plus scrap.In each heat the hot metal charge varies from108-115t.

Fuel burner OxygenOxygen

Fuellancelance

burner Fuel burner

Solid bath

Cold heavy scrapIron ore

Lime stoneCold light scrap

Slag pocket

Slag pocket

Slag thimble

FOUNDATION

Slag thimble

Wateratomiser

WateratomiserD

ow

n

take

Do

wn

ta

ke

Liquid bath

CO CO

R o o fR o o f

Fig1 Twin Hearth Furnace at ISP

Tem

p °C

(Re

vise

d pr

acti

ce)

Tem

p °C

(N

orm

al p

ract

ice)

Fig 3 Plot of Temperature vs Carbon content for revised refiningpractice for high and low P irons

Fig 2 Nomogram for limestone and gaseous oxygen requirement



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According to ISSF global stainlesssteel melting activities increased by24.9% to a new record high of30.7Mt.

This came after three years ofdeclining stainless steel productiondriven by stock cycles and globaleconomic crises. The strong recov-ery of the global stainless steel pro-duction has several reasons: eco-nomic recovery, strong end-usedemand, re-stocking at servicecentres and fabricators and alsothe re-filling of the internal supplychain in the stainless steel millswhich alone can count for 0.5Mt.

Stainless steel melting in Asia(without China) increased by20.8% to 8.6Mt. Japan increased

its stainless production by 31.5%to 3.4Mt thus partially compensat-ing for heavy losses in previousyears. Korea (+22.1%) and India(+17.6%) also achieved clear twodigit growth rates while Taiwan(+3.2%) at the same time was flat.Even during the past years ofglobal economic crises China wasthe driving force in stainless crudesteel production and the countryadded another 27.8% productiongrowth in 2010 almost 11.3Mt.

All Asian stainless steel produc-ers now cover 65% of the entireworld’s stainless steel production.

The next largest producing areaWestern Europe plus Africareported an increase of stainless

steel production by 22.1% andthus achieving a volume of slightlyless than 7.9Mt in 2010. All coun-tries of this area – except SouthAfrica – contributed significantlyto the growth. The growth rates ofthe major producing countriesranged from +14% to +37%.

The Americas grew their stain-less crude steel melting by 34.4%to 2.6Mt while Central andEastern Europe’s productionachieved a clearly over-proportion-al increase of +43.6% – bringingthis area to 0.3Mt – still almostnegligible in global context.

Comparing the performances ofthe single quarters of 2010 withthe same of 2009 show very differ-

ent growth rates during the year,clearly reflecting the improvementof the global development incourse of 2010 and the heavy re-stocking in the first part of the year.Q1 (+57.8%) and Q2 (+33.1%)were clearly stocking driven com-pared with the same quarters in2009 – where still depressed busi-ness activities in stainless steel wererecorded. Q3, however, showedalready signs of back to normalwith a plus of 5.3%.

Q4 finally showed a surprisingstrong increase of stainless steelproduction by 14.1% compared toQ4 2009 to an all-time Q4 high.This is due to the improvement inthe global economy in 2011.

Stainless production up 25% in 2010

1 news page_Layout 1 3/28/11 2:18 PM Page 1


Steelmaking

Deoxidation PracticeThe existing deoxidation practice was studiedby monitoring 45 heats and evaluating the dis-solved oxygen content of the steel after tappinginto the ladle, the final Si content of the steel,teeming temperature etc.

Thirty experimental heats were made withoutaddition of aluminium in a modified deoxida-tion practice for the semi-killed steels. Five fur-ther heats were monitored which had alumini-um additions as per conventional practiceadding 20-80kgs Al per heat to the metalstream during tapping to the ladle. Other addi-tions (FeMn, SiMn, FeSi and pet coke) wereadded to the ladle prior to tapping as in theconventional practice. Addition of ferro alloysduring tapping is the preferred procedure forthe modified practice, but could not beachieved due to shop logistics.

Ingot ReheatThe method of re-heating the ingots in thesoaking pit was also changed. It was advisedthat after the pit is charged with ingots and thecover replaced, the temperature is set at 1300 –1320°C and burner firing should commence atthe maximum rate and continue at maximumuntil the pit temperature reaches the set point.

Result & DiscussionThe modified practice has resulted in control-ling bath phosphorous and improved steel qual-ity and consequently a reduction in steeldefects.

Modified Charging practiceThe charging practice was modified to take careof the meltdown and refining period. Thechanges proposed were: – Charge light steel scrap through each door

followed by the limestone and one tonne of iron ore at the tap hole.

– Then charge all the iron ore required to con-trol superheat and allow 20 – 30 min of heat-ing time, if the ore is moist. The heating timemay be reduced depending on the ore mois-ure.

– Charge the remaining scrap after this. – When the material is sufficiently pre-heated

hot blast furnace metal should be poured into the furnace.

If the silicon content of the hot metal is morethan 1.6% and the P more than 0.25%, add twoboxes (4t) of iron ore on top of the lime chargeand a further box (2t) after the remainder ofthe scrap is charged, and adjust the oxygen flowrate during refining to 2500 - 3000Nm3/h fromthe very beginning of the blow. Maintaining thisflow rate gives better removal of phosphorusand silicon.

Control of P, C & TemperatureDue to the wide variation in hot metal quality,in the majority of cases the analysis of the initialsample shows high P in the bath. In such cases,more limestone is needed in the charge toachieve the desired low phosphorous as well asmaintain the start temperature sufficiently lowas a high temperature will also retard phospho-rous removal from the melt. In addition, whilethere is high silicon in the bath the phosphorouscontent cannot fall.

Sufficient iron ore has to be added from thestart to prevent the bath temperature rising toohigh to be able to lower the phosphorous in thebath. In trial heats made in the THF the aver-age P level at the start was reduced from0.085% to 0.068% and the final bath P from0.065% to 0.020% through modifying thecharging practice. The degree of super heat fellfrom the range 144 – 175°C at melt-down to 45– 85ºC as a result of adding iron ore during theinitial cold charging rather than to the metalbath during refining as in the former practice.While the temperature increases with decreasein carbon content in the steel bath during refin-ing, in the former practice this made phospho-rus difficult to remove because the super heatwas very high so limestone and iron ore addi-tions were made to the bath to cool it and facil-itate phosphorus removal. But in the revisedpractice, the high super heat is controlled byaddition of iron ore at the beginning only(immediately after charging the lime stone),thus eliminating the need to feed the bath dur-ing refining, and thus minimising iron loss dueto oxidation.

Modified Deoxidation PracticeDeoxidation of a semi killed steel plays animportant role for achieving good product qual-ity and increased yield. Over deoxidation ofsuch a steel causes greater shrinkage cavity orpipe formation inside the ingot leading to yieldloss, while under deoxidation leads to the blowholes which form a rim beneath the surfaces ofthe ingot which act to compensate for theshrinkage on solidification, forming too close tothe ingot skin causing unacceptable surfacedefects in the rolled products. The desiredrange of silicon and the dissolved oxygen con-tent of the liquid steel are the key factors whichmeasure the extent of deoxidation. Therefore,addition of the proper type and amount ofdeoxidiser is considered to be a controlling fac-tor for production of good quality semi-killedsteel.

High Carbon FeMn, SiMn, coke, FeSi and Alare all common additives for deoxidation ofconventional heats, but will lead to over deoxi-dation if high Si (>0.06%) and low dissolvedoxygen (< 50ppm) is present in the steel, caus-

ing various steel defects. To avoid this, no Alwas added to the trial heats. This helpedachieve the desired range of Si 0.04 - 0.06% inthe majority of the trial heats. In these heats,the silicon level was in the range 0.02 to 0.06%compared to 0.06-0.085%Si in conventionalheats. It was also observed that the addition ofFeSi in a similar quantity to conventional heatsbut without Al in the trial resulted in an opti-mum final Si content (<0.06%) but in conven-tional heats with Al added to the tappingstream, the Si was higher at over 0.06%. Theabsence of Al also helped achieve optimumdeoxidation leaving 60-80ppm of dissolved oxy-gen sufficient to create a good rimming actionto compensate for solidification shrinkage inthe majority of the trial heats.

The implementation of this modified deoxi-dation practice along with measures to controltemperature drop during tapping and ladletransport is expected to result in a major tech-no-economic benefit due to savings in the con-sumption of aluminium and a reduction in steeldefects on rolling.

The modified deoxidation practice resultedin a reduction of Al consumption of about0.43kg/t at marginally increased consumptionof FeSi by about 0.03kg/t. The modified deoxi-dation practice without the use of Al led to theproduction of steel with the desired level of Si(0.04 -0.06%) and dissolved oxygen (60 -80ppm) in most cases.

The average number of steel defects at thehot section mill for the trial heats was 3.29%.The monthly average values of steel defectsafter part implementation of the modified prac-tice fell from 6.4% for conventional heats to4.9% in October 2008 and has averaged 3.23%during the period April 2010 to January 2011(Fig 4).

AcknowledgementThe taskforce members are grateful to the manage-ment of IISCO Steel Plant and RDCIS for extendingthe support to pursue the present work. The adminis-trative and technical support provided by Shri JagdishSingh, ED I/C, RDCIS, Dr A K Ray, DGM & I/C(PS& M), RDCIS, Shri S Majumdar, DGM (SteelMaking), RDCIS, Dr T K Pratihar, DGM & I/C(SSM), Dr S Sen, DGM (RDCIS Burnpur Centre),Shri S K Sinha, GM & HOPC (RDCIS BurnpurCentre), Shri A K Singh, GM (Steel), ISP is grateful-ly acknowledged. The extensive support provided bythe personnel of Steel Melting Shop and R&C LabISP during execution of the present investigations isthankfully acknowledged.

References1 E Plockinger, H Straube, DieEdesistahlerzeugung, Springer, Wien19652 H Trenkler and W Krieger, Gmelin-Durrer,Metallurgy of Iron Vol 8a, pp-45 3 G Oiks, Converter and Open Hearth SteelManufacture pp-350Further Reading4 K G Trubin, Der SM-Proze B, VEE VerlagTechnik, Berlin, 19535 J P Carlens, Practical application of the oxygenactivity measurement by means of Celox oxygen cell,Electronite Report 6 H N Bansal et al ,’Oxygen probes: an aid to con-trol deoxidation in BOSB’, Open HearthProceedings, Vol 5, Atlantic City,1974,TMJ-AIME,pp322 7 Palmers et al,’ Parameters influencing the steelcleanliness of continuously cast billet’, Clean Steel,Balatonfured,1981, pp139 8 NKK Report

Fig 4 Plot of reduction of defectsas number of trialswithout Al additionsincreased therbylowering the aver-age addition ratefor all casts

Ave

rag

e A

l (kg

/t)

Stee

l def

ects

%

Defects Al addition


Steel Times International – April – 37

Quality, testing and analysis

THE wheel sets of railway rolling stock bear thevehicle weight, provide the guidance of thevehicle on the track and transmit the tractiveand braking forces to the rail. The demands onthe wheels are diverse. Increasing axle loadsand speeds demand ever better performancematerials, optimised production processes andcontinuous documentation for consistently highquality wheels.

One of the first production steps is the hotforming of the wheels. Precise and completemonitoring of production at this early stage is ofcrucial importance for the final quality, but alsofor the cost-effectiveness of the whole produc-tion process.

To ensure this, the wheel manufacturer,Bochumer Verein Verkehrstechnik (BVV)decided to measure each individual wheelimmediately after hot forming at its factory inBochum, Germany. Should deviations from thetolerances be discovered here, the machineoperator can intervene immediately. To do this,BVV had to update measuring equipment at thewheel production line.

Three sensors A concept developed together with LAP pro-vided the installation of modern Antaris Scantriangulation sensors, complete reprogrammingof the evaluation software and the replacementof the PC and electronic hardware. With thesemeasures and an intelligent cooling concept forthe sensors, LAP achieved precise and com-plete measurement of the wheel profiles and asignificant increase in availability of the measur-ing system.

At the start of hot forming, sawn steel ingotsare heated to forging temperature and deliveredto the forging press which forms wheel blankswith a force of up to 6kt. A wheel rollingmachine then rolls the wheel blanks to the roughdimensions followed by a 2kt closed-die forgingpress to give the wheels their final rough form.

The smallest wheel diameter produced onthe closed-die forging press is 385mm and thelargest 1470mm. The diameters of the hubsrange from 75 to 230mm and the hub heightbetween 80 to 350mm. The temperature of thewheels at this stage is around 1100°C.

A manipulator takes the red-hot wheels outof the closed-die forging press and places themonto the turntable of the measuring equipment(Fig 1). The LAP system scans the wheel con-tour during a 360° rotation and measures theexact profile (Fig 2).

Three Antaris Scan sensors are employedoperating at a scanning rate of up to 40 profilesper second and typically require 18 seconds tomeasure a wheel. LAP software calculates theexact profile of the wheel and the deviationsfrom the nominal contour from the measuredvalues in real time. The main dimensions arerecorded using a measurement protocol andchecked against the specified tolerances.

Quick overview The system displays the result of the measuredvalues on a screen as a graphic of the wheel’scross section, superimposed with the requiredspecified values (Fig 3).

A colour code shows the operator at a glancewhere the wheel is within the set tolerance, orat which points the values are outside the toler-ance band. The operators can thus gain a quickoverview of the geometry of each wheel.

If it is seen that the correct tolerances are notbeing observed, the operating crew use the datato optimise the press settings for the nextwheel.

Wheels with dimensions outside the specifi-cation are rejected at this point thereby avoid-ing wasted further processing. The whole cyclefrom removal from the press to depositing thewheel in the wheel store is completed within 60seconds.

The cycle time of the forging press is thus sig-nificantly longer than the time required formeasuring so the measurement causes no delayin production.

Every thirtieth wheel is additionally inspect-ed by the operator who checks the wheels visu-ally and assesses them on the basis of criteriasuch as wheel flange width or diameter.

Laser sensors reduce scrap when forgingrailway wheels A contour gauge employing three lasersensors uses triangulation to remotelymeasure the profile of hot forged railwaywheels to reject any out of specificationso avoiding wasted downstream finishingoperations. The real-time feedback alsoallows operators to adjust forging conditions to avoid further out of specproduction and archives all data fortraceability. Sawn ingots are

formed into a wheelblank on a 6000tpress then rolled torough dimensionsand finally formedin a 2000t closed-die press

Fig 1 A manipulator picks up the wheel and delivers it to the measuring table

Fig 2 Laser beams are projected onto the red hot wheels rotatingon the turntable where high-resolution line scan cameras imagethese on the wheel surface recording any distortion

LAP_Layout 1 3/29/11 10:23 AM Page 1


According to Lap, the Antaris Scan sensorscan be used to view practically any surface andthanks to the large measuring distance are verywell suited for measuring hot metals. Apartfrom measuring profiles, the laser sensors canalso be used to measure distances and diame-ter, straightness or flatness as well as positionand orientation.

The measuring system consists of an evalua-tion computer, the front-end PC for measure-ment data acquisition and processing, and a visu-alisation computer for representation, proto-colling and archiving the data.

The measured values from the sensors cometogether in the front-end PC; all signals from themeasuring systems are monitored and controlledfrom here.

The visualisation computer receives the data,stores them in the database and comparesthem. The system receives the nominal valuesof the contour for the wheels from the existingBVV database, compares them with the actualprofile data and outputs them in graphic form.The nominal contours of new wheel designs areentered at another PC located in the tooldesign department.

The system synchronises the sensors inde-pendently and balances them so that their indi-vidual measurements supply the complete wheelprofile in real time. The software compensatesfor any eccentricity in the event that the wheel is

deposited off-centre on the turntable. Themeasuring system is checked routinely once aday by means of a calibration wheel.

Lasting improvement The new contour measuring system was deliv-ered, installed and commissioned within justthree months of placing the order, despite thecomplex specifications and the great number ofnominal contours to be provided for. The accu-racy of the dimension measurements achieved isbetter than +/-1mm, and the repeatability ofthe profile coordinates is better than +/-0.5mm.

The new measurement and analysis systemnot only enables early decisions to prevent fur-ther processing of out of specification wheels butalso permits traceability back of each individualwheel for quality control purposes. In the eventof a complaint, the archived geometric data canbe immediately called up from the database.Moreover, the archiving and single-item loggingfunctions provide valuable data for continuousoptimisation of the production process. Even thetool engineering department uses these data forthe design of new wheel systems.

Contact

LAP GmbH Laser Applikationen, Zeppelinstr 23,

D-21337 Lueneburg, Germany

Tel +49 (0) 4131 9511-95

e-mail [email protected] web www.lap-laser.com

Precision in harsh environment The LAP Antaris Series operates using the tri-angulation method. A laser point moves along astraight line over the surface of the forgedwheels, automatically following the contour ofthe wheel as it rotates on the turntable. High-resolution line scan cameras capture, via a lens,the position of the laser point which changeswith the shape of the measured object.

The Antaris laser sensors are arranged in ameasuring frame and measure the wheel con-tour from above, below and from the side(Fig 4). Each wheel is given a unique identifica-tion number which can be used to retrieve thecorrect specification dimensions and measuredcontour values from BVV’s database via a net-work link.

Protective housings shield the sensors fromthe harsh environment and they are cooled withfiltered air at ambient temperature independ-ent of the compressed air supply of the works.The system requires neither cooling water norcompressed air – a great advantage, as a watercooling system is maintenance-intensive andalways a potential source of danger when incombination with electronics.

The filtered ambient air is pumped at a slightoverpressure through the protective housingand escapes at apertures in front of the sensors.The constant air flow prevents steam and dustentering the housing.


Fig 3 The hot profilewith dimensions isdisplayed as a cross-sectional diagramsuperimposed onthe required profile

Fig 4 Three scanninglaser sensors in

protective housingare mounted in ameasuring frame

where they arecooled with filtered

air at ambient temperature

SAMPLE preparation by the fused bead tech-nique is widely accepted as giving better preci-sion and accuracy than most other techniqueswhen analysing minerals, ceramics and similarsamples by XRF.

The Vulcan fusion system from FluxanaGmbH uses automatic fusion control to achievebetter sample uniformity and repeatability.

The Vulcan MA comes in several differentversions. The basic XRF version has 2, 4 or 6fusion stations, with automatically controlledflame temperatures under microprocessor con-trol, and the facility to store up to ten differentmelting programmes. Stable flame tempera-tures and simplicity of operation ensure goodsample-to-sample repeatability. Controlled tem-perature ramping is also possible. Other config-urations are designed for sample preparationfor ICP or AAS, or even a mixture of XRF andICP or AAS, and it is possible to combine theVulcan with a dedicated fume extraction systemto provide an integrated sample preparationworkstation.

Analysco supplies a complete range of cru-cibles, moulds, fluxes and other accessories tosupport the Vulcan, and also offer a full applica-tion development package including calibrationstandards, validation standards and drift monitorsamples to greatly simplify method development.

Analysco has a particular focus on the supplyof sample preparation equipment and consum-ables to analytical spectroscopist, and covers arange of techniques that includes XRF, ICP,NMR and AAS.

Analysco also offers a complete range ofmachine and oil condition monitoring equip-ment for the oil analyst and engineer. Conditionmonitoring based on oil and fuel analysis canincrease equipment uptime, reduce repair costsand detect potentially catastrophic machineryfailures before they occur.

Contact

Analysco Ltd, Aldbury Associates, Ardington Road,

Northampton, NN1 5LP, UK

Tel 01993 831792 e-mail [email protected]

Automatic Sample Fusion for XRF Analysis

Automatic fusion control provides greatersample uniformity and repeatability of XRFsamples

LAP_Layout 1 3/29/11 10:23 AM Page 2



Lean Thinking : Revealing the obvious

STEEL companies, and the companies thatsupply them, are usually long established enter-prises. Management inherit the processes andfocus on improving them, increasing efficiencyand effectiveness over time. However, somesteel companies have adopted an approachwhich questions why all the processes are inplace: this is central to the Lean Thinkingapproach.

Within the Lean Thinking philosophy, differ-entiating between processes which add valuefor customers, and those which do not, pro-vides a firm basis for significant improvementnot only in efficiency but also in customer satis-faction. The starting point for going through theLean Thinking process is recognising that acompany should only be undertaking tasks thattruly contribute to the value that its customersreceive. Put another way, it is about askingwhether customers would be prepared to payfor all the processes and tasks in place. If theywill not, then if those tasks and processes areavoidable, they should be eliminated. They aremaking no contribution to what the companyexists to do.

Value Stream MappingIn order to begin, it is necessary to map out allthe existing processes and tasks in place fordelivering to customers. This process is usuallycalled ‘Value Stream Mapping’, and focuses notonly on the physical production processes butalso on those processes which accompany them.These are product development (from conceptthrough to planning and development throughto launch) and information management(through order-taking through production plan-ning through to delivery and invoicing). It isoften best to start by looking at one product

Many companies have a clear under-standing of what adds value for theircustomers, or wider stakeholders, buttheir processes contain a lot of activitieswhich do not contribute to that value.Lean Thinking can help.By Keith Walker*

line and one customer or market sector to nar-row things to a manageable level. The result is aprocess flow chart showing all the existing activ-ities taking place to develop, make and deliverthe products and earn a revenue stream.

These value stream maps can be workingdocuments, in that the first attempt will mostprobably only include the major processes tak-ing place to satisfy customers. It is then possibleto add the essential ancillaries, such as, forexample, engineering workshops, chemical lab-oratories and test houses. The beauty of this isthat when it comes to taking action, it can beplanned locally.

The next stage is differentiating between theprocesses on the flow chart which add valuefrom the customers’ perspective and thosewhich do not. It is essential that the customerperspective is taken and that a very clear under-standing of what constitutes value is obtained.This means the definition should be specific fora product and the service surrounding it. Forexample, customer value may include precisedelivery timing, credit terms, paperwork andthe freedom to flex order quantities at shortnotice. If customer value is not clearly under-stood, then processes which indeed contributeto value can be eliminated in error.

Sources of WasteAnalysis of such value stream maps often revealshuge amounts of waste. Lean Thinking definesseven types of waste, and some are more obvi-ous than others (Fig 1). It is worth looking indetail at these for a full understanding.

Over-production means making more thanthe internal or external customer has ordered. Italso includes making products sooner thanrequired by customers. It is waste because itresults in obsolescence, handling damage andadditional defects. It requires additional han-dling, more space, extra machinery and extralabour and contributes to higher working capital,with possible interest charges. The causes areoften associated with lack of communicationbetween orderer and supplier, poor incentiveschemes which reward achievement of produc-tion volumes rather than meeting customerneeds, and inferior process reliability which leansto the concept of ‘being ahead of the game’.

Delays can also be considered as waitingtime. This is the time that expensive people or

machinery are idle, awaiting maintenance,materials, paperwork etc. The causes are ofteninconsistent work methods between depart-ments or works and long change-over times.

Transportation includes movement of people,materials, paperwork and products which cus-tomers would not pay for, and thereforeincludes almost all internal transportation andmovement. Causes are often poor workplacelayout, lack of coordination of processes, poorhouse-keeping and lack of definition of correctstorage locations for materials and products.People’s time is wasted and since most things insteel companies are heavy, more cranes andother carriers are required.

Inventories or stocks are waste even if theyare present to meet customer demands for on-time delivery. This is a reflection of poorprocess reliability, incapable suppliers, inaccu-rate forecasting, long change-over times andbatch sizes which are not in line with ordersizes. The stocks attract storage and extra han-dling costs, additional space requirements andmore labour.

Unnecessary motion differs from transporta-tion because it refers to the requirement forpeople and machinery to move around in theworkplace to complete tasks. Time is wasteddue to poor workplace layouts, meaning morestaff and equipment are required.

Inefficient processes and defective productsare more obvious wastes and need little expla-nation here. It is worth mentioning that in somecompanies the main cause has been found to belack of adequate training for staff, however.There is also one other possible waste associat-ed with building in product features which donot add value for customers, although this isuncommon in steel products. A possible exam-ple is making all hot metal to a low sulphur con-tent simply to make material selection easierdownstream in the process, when many cus-tomers do not require a low sulphur content inthe product.

For many managers, the definitions of thesewastes come as a surprise because they appearto refer to processes and tasks which are cur-rently essential and therefore unavoidable.Following the analysis there is often a stage ofdenial or even despair. For example, one rollingmill which analysed the time taken for eachprocess on the value stream map found that

Fig 2 The 5S approach works especially well in workshops and laboratories, but also in major plants

Fig 1 In Lean Thinking there are seven generic types of waste whichdo not add customer value

*Dr Walker was formerly with Corus Group and is now MD of the steel consultancy SteelFolk e-mail [email protected]

walker lean_Layout 1 3/29/11 2:23 PM Page 1


Lean Thinking provides a useful tool forworking on house-keeping and the layout ofplants and workshops which is based on visualmanagement. The most commonly used exam-ple is the well-known ‘shadow board’ for tools,where the tool which should be in the locationis painted in profile on the storage board.Everyone, including a perfect stranger, can seewhere to replace the tool so that it is always inits correct location for the next user. It is thisprinciple which guides improvement of theworkplace and it can be widely extended. Theapproach within Lean Thinking is called ‘5S’(Fig 2) and it should involve everyone in theworkplace. 5S is not just about cleanliness; it isabout the functional organisation of the work-place, so that work can be done in an efficient,safe and non-frustrating environment.

It is essential that all five principles are usedtogether as a series of steps.

• Sorting means retaining only those materi-als, tools and equipment which are required and can be regarded as eliminating clutter. Some companies have used an ‘auction’ for items in question, whereby anyone claiming that it is required becomes the owner, responsible for its correct storage and main-tenance. Quite often, a lot of items can be discarded or put into long-term storage.

• Setting in Order is the next step: there should be a place for everything and everything in its place, and this should be clearly, visually marked. Items should be close to hand, eliminating motion, with the most reg-ularly used being the most accessible. The focus is on organising to make work flow smoothly.

• Sweeping is a daily, or shift, process wherebyeverything is put in its proper place. This ensures that everything is where expected byusers and constitutes good house-keeping.

• Standardising work-stations such that any operator can work at any station makes sense, but is rarely the case, leading to errorsand lost time. If there is more than one loca-tion from where a task can be carried out, allshould be identical. Then:

• Sustain the first four steps, improving according to opportunity, and critically reviewing them in case of changes to the type

of work being carried out. It will be apparentthat 5S effectively focuses on eliminating thewastes described above, and it is a good toolfor improving any workshop or plant.

The stage has now been reached whereaction has been taken to eliminate waste fromthe workplace and production processes as faras is feasible. The next stage in Lean Thinkingis to make the remaining processes on the valuestream map flow smoothly. This means workingon each design, process or task continuouslyfrom start to end with no waiting time or delaybetween the steps.

This task can be onerous on a large scale andoften requires new organisations and technolo-gies to achieve it. It can also necessitate remov-ing long-standing obstacles (or ‘monuments’)like embedded IT systems, but the main focusis on the way people work together, communi-cating properly internally and externally.

And then production, whether it is steelproducts or an item produced in a workshop,should be provided only when the customerwants it. This need driven by ‘pulling’ from thecustomer means that waiting time, inventoryand left-overs are impossible – production ondemand.

Target zero wasteThe final stage is pursuit of perfection, the goalbeing zero waste. The Lean Thinking process isiterative and should be constantly consideredby as many people in the workforce as possible.

To some extent Lean Thinking for steel com-panies has limited use on a grand scale, but itspower has been found to be considerable bythose which have adopted it. Work flows, thereis less clutter, fewer problems demandingattention.

It appears that the adoption of the principlesalways produces better results than would beexpected considering the major obstacles toperfect Lean Thinking in large steel companies.

Some practitioners add Safety, Security andSatisfaction to make the 5Ss’, 8Ss’ but in theopinion of the author, safety should be part ofany and all work and its inclusion in 5S is erro-neous, and possibly trite. These three addition-al items do not form part of a succession, orflow, of activities, so it is better to leave themout. And its worth remembering the 5S conceptcomes from the Japanese where the five con-cepts are denoted by the words: seiri, seiton,seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke.


only 3% of the time used was adding any valuefor customers. Another found that it would takeonly 24 hours to produce a plate order, but theyrequired a lead time of 6 weeks. This, however,is only a reflection of the enormous opportuni-ty for improvement if Lean Thinking is serious-ly pursued.

Of course, such huge opportunities andrewards can hardly be easily obtained. Some ofthe waste can be eliminated easily but most findthe benefits are only small whilst worthwhile. Itis adopting the Lean Thinking principles whichis the important thing at the early stages, con-tinually questioning whether what the companyis doing is all adding value from the customerperspective, and taking opportunities to elimi-nate waste. This is because eventually it willbecome apparent that in fact most steelplantswere designed to achieve economies of scalerather than to meet customer needs, and littlecan be done to change this overnight. To give acommon example, take flying in aeroplanes: Itis most un-lean, in that ideally they would col-lect you from home and take you directly toyour hotel at destination, but it seems impossi-ble to do anything to achieve this. But it is notan excuse for simply accepting it.

Action PlanThe next stage is to develop a plan for action.The value stream maps showing the results ofthe waste analysis should highlight all theprocesses which are not adding value for cus-tomers. They key point is to accept that it isgoing to improve the company performance ifthey can be eliminated – it cannot do otherwise.The task is to formulate suitable, feasible andacceptable action plans to achieve improve-ment. There is no way to generalise about solu-tions, unfortunately, but it is those steel compa-nies that have followed this path that have oftenfound that changes in working practices andworkplace layout are the most fruitful things topursue, and often changes in the ancillaryprocesses produced significant improvements.

For example, changes in the layout of engi-neering shops can lead to significant impact onmaintenance performance. Similarly, one firmsaved substantial cost at the BOS plant throughimprovement of chemical laboratory layoutwhich resulted in a much faster sample turn-round time. It is often found that starting withmanageable projects in the action plans will sowthe seed for more significant changes to theproduction process overall.

CLAIMED to be the first truly simultaneous X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometer for pre-cise, high-speed elemental analysis for processcontrol in metal production, the S8 DRAG-ON™, from Bruker offers high quantitativeprecision in combination with elemental flexi-bility for up-to-date production control, cover-ing almost all elements of the periodic table ina single, rapid measurement, including Calthough for practical reasons, O and N are bet-ter measured using OES because of the lowconcentrations normally present.

The key to this innovation is the design of theS8 Dragon, combining proven single elementchannels with the new MultielementChannel™. With 4kW high excitation powerand dedicated element channels, the machine’sMultielement Channel simultaneously analyses

the elemental fingerprint in a single run in lessthan 40 seconds.

With its parallel data acquisition in dualmode, the S8 Dragon offers enhanced datasafety for better cost efficiency due to improvedprocess control.

Bruker’s TouchControl™ is employed forease of use and reliability. TouchControl enablesmultilingual (English, Chinese, Portuguese,Russian, Spanish, etc.), simple and essentiallyfail-safe operation via an integrated touchscreen, thus requiring minimal user training.

The footprint of the machine is more than25% smaller compared to traditional, simulta-neous XRF spectrometers. It easily fits intomost laboratories for daily routine work. Withits automation interface, the Dragon seamlesslyintegrates into various types of laboratory

Multielement analysis in single run XRFautomation, includingautomated samplepreparation andLIMS.

The S8 Dragoncompletes Bruker’scomprehensive prod-uct portfolio for ele-mental analysis inmetal production.

contact

Dr Kai Behrens, Bruker AXS

Global Product Manager XRF

Tel +49 721 50997-5062

e-mail

[email protected]

www.bruker.com/dragon

walker lean_Layout 1 3/29/11 2:23 PM Page 2



NON-destructive testing (NDT) is a qualityassurance and analytical technique that helpsagainst the potential failure of engineeringmaterial, components, fastenings and structures.

Since it enables in-depth evaluation of amaterial without causing damage, NDT oftenprovides the final quality assurance stage beforea new product enters service, while in-serviceNDT can be the last line of defence againstcomponent failure in the field.

As part of its metallurgical solutions, UKgroup Keighley Laboratories offers an NDTservice for clients in the aerospace, automotive,petrochemical, nuclear, defence, mechanicalengineering, construction, civil engineering andallied industries, covering both laboratory andsite inspection. The company recently added toits NDT resources with a new digital flawdetector for ultrasonic testing and a hand-heldferrite content meter for testing weld seams andpipe materials in the oil, gas and petrochemicalindustries.

The Keighley NDT facility covers the twomost common methods of surface crack andflaw detection: Liquid Penetrant and, for fer-rous materials, Magnetic Particle Testing, andUltrasonic Flaw Detection to cover the volu-metric inspection technique. It also can provideRadiographic Testing services on a sub-con-tracted basis.

Non-destructive testing and inspection pro-cedures are operator-dependent, relying uponthe skills and experience of NDT technicians toobtain and evaluate results. All members of theKeighley Laboratories team are certificated to aminimum of PCN Level 2, an internationallyrecognised symbol of competence.

Although most of its work is carried out inthe laboratory, around 20% of projects are onsite, checking fixtures that cannot be movedsuch as presses, silos, boilers, offshore rigs ormiles of installed pipelines in paper mills andpetrochemical plants.

Defect detectionFor the detection of flaws breaking the surfaceon components such as castings and forgings,weld cracks, leaks in new components andfatigue cracking on in-service components, thecompany provides Liquid Penetrant Testingwith either colour contrast or fluorescent tech-niques. LP testing can be undertaken either inthe firm’s laboratory or at the customer site and

is applicable to both ferrous and non-ferrousmaterials.

The alternative method of surface defectdetection is Magnetic Particle Inspection whichis only suitable for ferro-magnetic materials. Amagnetic field is induced into the test piece,and the technique is ideal for detecting cracks,porosity, seams and other surface breaking, aswell as sub-surface discontinuities down to2mm. Imperfections are revealed using fluores-cent or non-fluorescent media.

On-site testing is carried out using perma-nent magnets or portable electro-magneticyokes where a suitable power source is avail-able. Suitable for welds, castings, forgings andmachined parts, including engine, suspensionand braking components, testing is carried outto BS EN ISO 9934-1 and BAE RO5-6103standards.

For identifying imperfections within a testpiece or any changes in material properties,Ultrasonic Flaw Detection reveals volumetricdiscontinuities, using sound waves introducedinto the component from an ultrasonic source.Undertaken by digital and analogue machines,ultrasonic detection is able to penetrate up toseveral metres in steel and can detect lamina-tions, lack of fusion in welds and corrosion, as

well as carrying out thickness and depth checks.This technique is suitable for welds, wroughtiron products and castings in magnetic andnon-magnetic materials, including glass, ceram-ics and plastics, again with tests carried outeither in-house or on-site.

To upgrade its ultrasonic testing facilities,Keighley Laboratories invested around £8k in aSonatest Masterscan digital flow detector,which incorporates amplifier and pulsar tech-nology to deliver near-surface resolution andpenetrating power.

The NDT department has also added a digi-tal magnetic permeability meter, for measure-ment of ferro-magnetic inclusions in feeblymagnetic materials against relevant specifica-tions, and a hand-held ferrite content meter, foranalysing the ferrite content in austenitic andduplex steel; both are suitable for off-site or in-house applications and give KeighleyLaboratories further distinctive methods ofmaterial inspection.

Contact

Keighley Laboratories Limited, Croft House, South Street,

Keighley BD21 1EG, UK

Tel +44 (0) 1535 664211,

e-mail [email protected] web www.keighleylabs.co.uk

Keighley Laboratories addsto testing resources

Defect detected on a shaft by Liquid Penetrant Testing followed by viewing under ultra vio-let lighting to reveal defect by fluorescence

THIN film strain gauges cut by laser can beused for exact measurement of forces at criticalpoints, such as for highly stressed componentsor complex 3-D workpieces. Currently, theLaser Zentrum Hannover (LZH) is developingsensors using ultra short laser pulses, with thegoal of making the production of high-qualitythin-film strain gauges (TFSG) economicallyattractive in small and middle-sized batches.

Industrial environments call for highly robustsensors which can withstand high temperaturefluctuations as well as mechanical and chemicalstresses.

Previous sensor solutions have distinct weak-nesses. Often, TFSG foils are attached usingadhesives, which can run or ooze, and thus dis-tort results. Especially in tough environments,the long-term stability of these sensors can begreatly impaired. Thus, strain gauges based onthin-film technologies are preferred for applica-tions with special requirements. Photo-litho-

Surface strain sensor for tough environments graphic sensor structures are complex, and notcost efficient for small or middle-sized batches.Also, the masking techniques used in electron-ics production are not suitable for complex

Laser cut fullbridge strain

sensor forshaped

components

workpieces with cylindrical, spherical or free-form areas, and can thus only be used for flatworkpieces.

The Microtechnology Group of LZH is cur-rently working on developing a laser-structuredTFSG. After the workpiece has been coatedwith an isolation and sensor layer, an ultra shortpulse laser with a lateral resolution of 10 to100μm is used to structure the sensor, withoutthermally damaging the sensitive layers. Theadvantage of using this process is that compli-cated masking processes are not necessary, andthe sensors can be directly applied to complex,three-dimensional workpieces.

Contact

Laser Zentrum Hannover eV, Hollerithallee 8,

D-30419 Hannover, Germany

Tel +49 511 2788 151, Fax +49 511 2788 100

e-mail [email protected] web www.lzh.de

keighley_Layout 1 3/30/11 10:03 AM Page 1


Process control

A high-speed wire-rod mill for Votorantim Metais

Votorantim Metais, in Resende, Rio deJaneiro Brazil, is a new EAF based rodmill which produced saleable coil duringthe first month of commissioning thanksto close cooperation with the vendor ofthe electrical and automation equipment,Russula, which also supplied the watertreatment plant which recirculates 98%of the water used.By A Schultz Rizek* & F C DutraVieira**

VOTORANTIM Metais produced its first coilof wire-rod without cobbles at the beginning ofSeptember 2008. By the end of the month itwas producing a commercial product with a lowrate of downtime arising from electrical faults.

Rolling MillThe rolling mill at Resende, Rio de Janeiro is asingle strand wire rod mill, with a future plan toinstall a second strand. The roughing mill aswell as the reheating furnace is sized for twostrands.

The mill has 28 passes and is divided intothree main areas:– Roughing Mill (common to all);– Intermediate Mill;– Finishing Mill.

The objective was to produce 1Mt/y of billetsand 500kt/y of a diverse range of rolled prod-ucts, the mill speed depending on the product,the dimensions of which are presented in thepanel (right).

Russula supplied all the electrical equipmentand control systems necessary for mill opera-tion, as well as all the basic and detailed engi-neering of the electrical equipment. Withrespect to automation and control, Russulaimplemented one of the most sophisticatedprocess automation systems for long productsrolling mills available anywhere.

The roughing mill consists of six stands andhas the capacity to enable two strands to berolled to rod downstream. It has a singlestart–stop shear. Control in the Roughing mill isby tension control due to the size and speed ofthe material being rolled (Fig 1). The tensioncontrol system ensures that the bar is deformedunder minimal tension.

The generation of the speed reference signalin the Roughing mill, as well as the other twomill areas is through the ‘R-Factor’ which meas-ures the reduction in terms of the cross section-al area before and after each stand, and theSpeed Control Cascade as shown in Fig 2.

Mill control using the R-Factor simplifies milloperation compared to other control methodsbecause the operator does not have to controlmultiple parameters simultaneously such asspeed, motor RPM, etc... Using the R-Factor,the operator only controls one parameter, thereduction at each stand, which is directly relat-ed to the rolling fundamentals.

The 950mm shear at the end of the RoughingMill train, as well as the other two Start–Stopshears in the Intermediate and Finishing mills

Loop ControlWith the division of the mill into two strandsafter stand 6 and after the looper table, therolled billet enters the intermediate mill.

Intermediate MillThe Intermediate Mill consists of a further 6stands and at 700mm Start–Stop shear after thefinal stand. The stands are positioned in thehorizontal/vertical configuration, depending onthe required quality of rolled product.

Between the stands 7/8 and 8/9, control isstill by tension control, but between 9/10 and11/12 control is instead by loopers between thestands. The loop control in this area follows thesame concept as in Fig 3.

Finishing MillThe finishing mill starts after the 700mm shearand the V12 stand. Speeds are higher in thismill and may reach up to 120m/s in the finalstand of the No–Twist® Mill Block, after 28passes.

The laying head coils the rod on exiting thefinishing mill, the coils then pass to a Stelmoraccelerated cooler which consists of eight sec-tions and six cooling fans, the number useddepending on the product strength demanded.Once the coils are cooled they are sent to thecoil exit, through vertical handlers (pallets) andthen horizontal handlers (C hooks). The coilsare finally compacted in the compactor,weighed and sent for dispatch (Fig 4).

Water Treatment PlantIt is becoming more costly each year to buildwater treatment plants due to the high volumeof water required in steelmaking and rollingcoupled with more stringent environmental leg-islation. As a result, Russula’s primary goal inthe design and supply of the Votorantim Metaiswater treatment plant was to ensure high quali-ty water recirculated in a closed loop to theprocess and with minimal water make-uprequired. The water treatment plant achievesthis goal with 98% of the water recirculated in aclosed loop with just 2% losses to evaporationand purges.

Russula provided the water treatment plantunder a turn-key contract, including collecting

use the same control concept to crop the headand tail of the rolled rod, but naturally acting atdifferent speeds. Because of head cooling andalso deformation after each mill train it is nec-essary to remove the head and tail of the rodbefore it enters the next stage of the mill.

After the 950mm shear, the mill is designedto separate into two rolling strands. The secondstrand is to be installed in the future, which willthen enable production of finished product tobe increased to 1Mt/y. To obtain greater controlstability when using two strands, it was decidedto separate the roughing mill from the interme-diate mill after stand 6 by installing a large loop-er table with the capacity to absorb significantmass variations in the mill. With this configura-tion, it is possible to use a fixed exit speed atthe finishing block and laying head, whichbrings great operational advantages and opti-mal coiling.

This looper, like the others in the mill, isbased on a single control concept, but each withdifferent speeds and gains, which are parame-ters set in the control system. The main purposeof the automatic loop control is to maintain ten-sion free rolling by having a loop between eachstand (Fig 3).

*Sales Manager, **Engineer Russula do Brazil

Billet size: 150mm sq x 12m long (future160mm sq x 12m long)

Billet weight: 2110kg (future 2410kg)Rolling speed: – Project guarantee: 105m/s

– Welded rebar maximum speed: 85m/s

Production rate 500kt/y in 7200 hours(future 1Mt/y)

Reheat furnace: 120t/hProducts: – Rounds: 5.5mm – 24mm

– Welded rebar (HYQST): 6.3mm, 8.0mm, 10mm, 12.5mm & 16mm

– Steel: Low carbonTemperature: – Stand # 1: 1050°C for

ASISI 1080– Finishing block – NTM: 900–950°C for ASISI 1080

Coil size: 1250mm OD x 850mm IDCoil Weight: 2046kg (future 2400kg)

Product dimensions and millparameters The 1Mt/y six-stand roughing train at

Votorantim Metais in Brazil

russula tenova_Layout 1 3/30/11 9:59 AM Page 1

Cascade/R-FactorBillet Inc6*6 inches

Stand 1 Stand 2 Stand 3 Stand 4 Stand 5 Stand 6

Elongation factor/reduction factor


Process control

and treating raw water from the river Paraíbado Sul. The new water treatment plant servesboth the high speed wire rod mill and the steel-making melt shop.

The basic concept is based on four steps,each of which is equal and of fundamentalimportance in the final water quality (Fig 5). Ina rolling mill and melt shop, there are principal-ly three types of contaminants that have to beremoved to recycle the water, these are: scale,oil & grease and sludge.

Step 1: Scale PitIn the first step the scale pit removes mill scaleequal to or greater than 200 microns in size. AtVotorantim Metais, flocculants are added to thescale pit to cause the suspended fine particles toclump together.

Coagulants are not used because these chem-ical products can react with the chlorides andsulphates in the water and cause increased cor-rosion, which in turn requires the addition ofproducts to inhibit corrosion. In addition, asthis water treatment plant has ring filters ratherthan sand filters, using flocculants is not anissue.

Step 2: Decanting BasinsAfter the scale pit, the water and suspendedscale enters the decanting basins. Since thewater stays there for more than an hour, at theend of the decanting process, the concentrationof scale in the overflow is just 20-30ppm, anacceptable level to return to the mill. Also inthis step, oil and grease is removed by a dualfunction bridge scrapper and oil skimmer. Thesludge that accumulates in the bottom of thedecanting basins is pumped to the sludge thick-ener tank and then to press plate filters.

Step 3: Automatic Ring FiltersThe main objective of filtration is to ensure thatfine scale particles and oil do not return to therolling mill. The difference in the applied tech-nology occurs in the third step which uses ringfilters. At Votorantim Metais, the ring filters areinstalled in batteries of eight filters together,with four filter cartridges in each filter. Due totheir modest weight compared to sand filters(about 2000kg per battery) and efficient use ofspace, their installation did not require addi-tional civil work as they were installed next tothe decanting basins (Fig 6).

The ring filters consist of filter cartridges ofpolypropylene rings placed one on top of theother, creating channels. The available filtergrades range from 20μm to 400μm dependingon the specifications and type of filteringdesired.

Ring filters have a shelf life of over ten years,so in normal operating conditions it is unneces-sary to replace the cartridges. Also ring filterscan handle water with oil and grease, unlikesand filters which become contaminated withthese and then lose filtering functionality.

Backwashing of the ring filters is fully auto-matic and can be programmed based on pres-sure difference, time, or other combinations.The volume of water used for backwashing isless than one-tenth of that required for back-washing sand filters.

In the case of Votorantim, the ring filters usearound 50m3 of clean water for backwashing; ifsand filters had been chosen for this project thebackwash water volume would be close to900m3.

Step 4: Modular Cooling TowersThe filtered water has only a trace of suspend-ed solid scale (around 20ppm) and is pumpedto the cooling towers, cooled and then pumpedback to the mill. The total water loss is around2%, or for every 100m3 of process water, 98m3

of treated water is returned to the mill. Theelectricity consumption is approximately2.4MW/h for more than 10800m3/h pumped.

The water flows are given in panel 2.

Pre-treatment Water StationAs this was a greenfield water treatment plantinstallation, it was necessary to capture rawwater from the Paraíba do Sul River, which islocated about 2km from the mill. Russuladesigned and implemented a water capture sta-tion connected it to the pre-treatment waterplant by a 2km pipeline.

The pre-treatment station has the capacity totreat close to 400m3/h of water. The station

Fig 1 Tension control is used in the Roughing Mill (red active – green active or inactive at these positions in the mill)

Fig 2 Using R-Factorcontrol means theoperator has only

the degree of reduction to

monitor

Fig 3 Automatic loop control maintain tension free rolling by having a loop between each stand(red active – green active or inactive at these positions in the mill)

Fig 4 Coils weighing up to 2046kg are compacted for binding

Fig 5 98% of the water is recycledfollowing treatment

Minimum Tension ControlThreading

Tension control

Integral control

Cascadecontrol

Tension duration

MemoriseTorque

Blockcontrol

Rolling

Tail outUW DW DDW UW DW DDW

Automatic Loop Control

Bar in stand

Looper up

Tail loop

Loop position

Integral position

Cascade control

Block loop control

Switch fromdownstreamto upstream control

UW DW DDW UW DW DDW

RollingLoopControl

ContinuousCaster/Rolling

Mill

Step 1Scale pit

Step 2Decanting

Basins

Step 3Ring Filters

Step 4Cooling Towers

�52



Thermal equipmentA new preheating chamber was installed to pre-heat the strip prior to entering the open flameburner furnace. This section is particularly use-ful to pre-heat cold rolled strip and removeresidual rolling oil thus avoiding the need for achemical cleaning section. For energy efficiency,heat is recovered from the exhausted fumes ofthe furnace.

New roller stands of the ‘up-and-down’ typehave been installed in the furnace to enablerapid roller change while the line is still running(Fig 1).

A new innovative ‘multi-media’ cooling sec-tion consisting of an air plus light water mistsection, a water mist section and a final sprayedwater section has been added. The first sectionwas designed to allow a uniform temperatureacross the width of the strip to avoid the pro-duction of strip flatness defects (Fig 2).

Pickling SectionThe pickling section is composed of a shallowtank in which sulphuric acid is used for de-scal-ing and a single spray pickling tank followed bya shallow tank with submerging rolls. These lat-ter two are fed with a ‘reduced polluting’ mix-ture of acids which contain no nitric acid soeliminating nitrates in the waste waters andNOx in the exhaust fumes.

All the recirculation tanks, heat exchangersand instrumentation are designed to improvethe operation and safety conditions. New stor-age and buffer tanks have been installed tomanage and store the acids.

New brushing units have been supplied as wellthe final brushing, rinsing and drying sections.

The first tank was modified to install two exitsteering-wringer rolls to improve strip trackingin the pickling section.

A new double stage acid fume exhaust sys-tem was supplied to comply with the strict localenvironmental regulations.

The line’s electrical and automation systemhas also been completely renovated using newdigital drives supplied by Tenova’s automationdivision.

Tenova Key Technologies has also developed

a new technology for mixed acid recovery thatcan be used for stainless steel pickling lineswhere Nitric and Hydrofluoridic acids are used.

Silicon SteelsAt Wuhan Steel in China, two modern and highproductivity Annealing and Pickling Lines(APL) were supplied to treat the highest quali-ty Grain Oriented (GO) and Non GrainOriented (NGO) Silicon Steel grades in 2009.

The main parameters of the lines are:– H R & CR Si Steel (GO & NGO)

(Si up to 3.5%)– Thickness 1.3-3.0mm HR– Thickness 1.45-1.55mm CR– Width 800-1300mm– Productivity (max) 60t/h (HRC)– Process speed 30-50m/min

Furnace & Cooling SectionThe furnace and cooling section was suppliedby Tenova LOI Italimpianti and consists of:• A direct-fired Non-Oxidising Furnace

(NOF) operating under a reducing atmos-phere with an excess of fuel gas. This requires various safety measures and a post-combustion system to ensure that the flue gasdoes not contain any combustible and toxic components.

• The later sections are for heating, soaking and/or slow cooling under a nitrogen atmos-phere. This requires safe and reliable atmos-phere separation at the exit of the direct firedfurnace.

• The cooling section has to perform a wide range of cooling rates, mainly dependent on the steel grade – non-grain orientated (NGO), grain orientated (GO) or high gradeGO.

For quality reasons, a strip temperature con-trol mode instead of the commonly used fur-nace temperature control is incorporated in theautomation control system. Since the heattransfer in the furnace is mainly determined byradiation, there is an auto-adaptive algorithm,to ‘learn’ online the strip emissivity which isneeded for both pyrometric strip temperature

IN the past 10 years Tenova (part of the Techintgroup) consolidated its steel pickling technolo-gies by merging the mechanical expertise of theformer American Aetna Standard with theexperience of the Italian Italimpianti companyand the acid regeneration technology ofAustria’s Key Technologies (formerly KCS).This has enabled the pickling processes appliedto steel strip products to be optimised.

Furthermore, thanks to the co-operation withfurnace maker Tenova LOI Italimpianti, Tenovais able to supply all the most modern technolo-gies applied in Annealing & Pickling Lines forStainless and Silicon Electrical steels.

Stainless Steels An Annealing and Pickling Line (APL) for hotand cold rolled stainless steel strip was commis-sioned in Italy in 2010, for ThyssenKrupp-ASTin Terni. The line was relocated from Torinoand underwent a complete upgrade, startingfrom the furnace and all its electrical andmechanic equipment and a new and innovative‘multi-media’ cooling section added. In addi-tion, the pickling section was revamped, includ-ing recirculation, acid management equipmentand automation.

The main parameters of the line are now:– Hot rolled stainless steel (AISI 200,300,400)

& Titanium– Cold rolled stainless steel (AISI 200, 300,

400 series)– Thickness H Roll 2.0 - 7.0mm – Thickness C Roll 1.3 - 5.0mm – Width 600 - 1550mm– Productivity (max) 50t/h (Hot coils)

The project was conceived and developedwith the aims of:– Increasing the line productivity;– Improving the strip quality;– Minimising the environmental impact;– Minimising the civil works.

Strip trackingTo improve strip handling in the line a new 4-strand type looper car was installed with twosteering rolls on board as well as new steeringrolls in the line, some with motor driven rolls.The strand separator arms of the looper areactuated by a cam mechanism according to theTenova’s ‘no-scratch design’ suitable to supportcold rolled material.

Process lines

Latest technologies in pickling of stainless,silicon and low carbon steel strip By combining the expertise of four group companies, Tenovahas references and know-how in pickling and annealinglines suitable for; stainless steel, silicon steel and carbon steelboth in large continuous pickling lines and smaller push pullpickling lines. Tenova’s technology assures reduced environ-mental impact through an innovative acid regeneration plantwith zero effluent discharge.By P Curletto*, G Frithum**, S Martines*, & S Marelli*

*Tenova Strip Processing and **Tenova Key Technologies

e-mail [email protected]

Fig 1 Pull-out rollerstands in the contin-uous annealing furnace enablesexchange of a rollerwithout interruptingproduction



Main parameters of line 2 are:– Material H R Low C Steel– Thickness (mm) 1.2 – 6.0 – Width (mm) 1050 – 2350– Productivity (max) 1.1Mt/y (228t/h)– Line speed (m/min) 220 process

Regeneration PlantTwo new spray roaster Acid RegenerationPlants of capacities 11 000l/h and 7500l/h weresupplied to regenerate the exhausted acid andthe rinsing waste water of both pickling lines.

Mechanical equipmentAt the Entry Section, a high capacity coil load-ing section able to handle up to 20 coils perhour was tailor designed to automatically han-dle coils with the axis vertical and withoutstraps, as they arrive on an existing chain con-veyor. These are then automatically loaded tothe Pay-off Reels in double uncoiling pass con-figuration.

New entry and exit looper cars were provid-ed, respectively six-strand and four-strand type.The looper cars incorporate a strip cam-levermechanism with no-scratch separator arms;steering units were installed between each loopstrand, at the exit of the pickling and rinsingsections.

Tension leveller-scale breakerThe tension leveller is designed to break the hotrolling scale on the surface of the strip soincreasing the pickling capacity by 12% and issized to improve the strip shape, thanks to theavailable maximum strip tension of 650kN andthe entry and exit roll bridles driven by a motorthrough a mechanical differential drive system.

Process SectionThe pickling section is composed of a pre-rinsesection followed by four 33 metre long turbu-lent flow shallow tanks, five cascade spray typerinse tanks with high pressure final spray bars, astrip dryer with edge blowing, a fume treatmentsystem, and acid analyser controlling the fer-rous ion (Fe++) concentration.

The pickling recirculating tank arrangementallows high concentration gradients whichgreatly improve the pickling efficiency and per-mits effective pickling with up to 130g/l ofmetal in the spent solution. Between each pick-ling tank are installed overflow chambers withsqueegee rolls to minimise acid transport fromone tank to the next.

The circulating acid is injected into the bathin a direction counter to the direction of travelof the strip in order to achieve good mixing offresh acid added to the pickle tank and toincrease the relative speed between the stripand pickling solution.

Injection nozzles are distributed along bothsidewalls of the tanks and additional spray barsare located at the entry and exit ends of all thepickling tanks allowing direct chemical interac-tion between the scale on the strip surface andachieve immediate transfer of heat from the hotacid and the strip.

As a result of injecting the acid from the tanksidewall the thicker scale present at the edges ofthe strip is in contact with fresh acid from thevery start and while the impulse from the jets ishighest.

The consumption of fresh acid is kept at alow level by continuous and reliable determina-tion of the iron concentration in the spent pick-ling solution by measuring its density.

Rinsing of the strip is achieved by means of a5-cascade spray rinse section minimising con-sumption of make-up water .

Push Pull Pickling with Zero WasteA push Pull Pickling Line with AcidRegeneration Plant (ARP) ‘Zero WasteTechnology’ for small plants has been designedfor a Compact Cold Mill Complex in Romaniaand also for a mill in Uganda. Zero effluentoperation saves pickling process costs andreduces water consumption.

The Tenova concept for zero effluent is theanswer to the increasing demand for environ-mental friendly plants including energy savingoperation and use of water in the plant. This per-mits producers to operate without any acid efflu-ents, an additional major advantage in regionswhere water is scarce.

In particular, Tenova has developed completecompact packages to provide optimised, tailoredand an all-comprehensive solution for picklinglines using dedicated acid regeneration units.

The increasing market demand for small sizeand low cost pickling lines, usually in ServiceCentres, requires a new approach and a newconcept for this kind of application.

The lowering of the cost of consumables isincreasingly important and the restricted avail-ability for effluent treatment combined withstrict emission limits becomes a challenge thatsmall producers can meet by a combination ofpickling and acid regeneration.

measurement and for heat transfer calculationsusing a thermodynamic model.

Pickling SectionThe pickling section uses hydrochloric acid andis composed of: a pre-rinse; three turbulentpickling tanks; a four stage rinsing section anda dryer. A turbulent shallow tank used for theHCl pickling (Fig 3).

The Tenova Mathematical Model controlsthe acid concentration of the solution using analgorithm that calculates the amount of iron insolution and controls the make up flow rateswith the following input data:– line automation (strip width, speed etc);– measurements by field instruments.

The algorithm accuracy is 5-10% for the setvalue of the acid concentration (g/l) within 24hours. The system can prevent over-pickling (egdue to slow down of the line) by changing thenumber of feeding pumps in operation to con-trol the pickling solution turbulence.

Silicon is removed from the waste acid by aneffective state of the art removal system devel-oped by Tenova Key Technologies.

Carbon Steels For large tonnage throughputs, continuouspickling lines are required while for smaller ton-nages, such as used by Service Centres, ‘Push-Pull’ lines are more suitable.

Continuous Pickling LineThe scope of a project for MMK in Russiarequired two high capacity continuous picklinglines for low carbon steel, for a total productionof more than 3Mt/y. The first plant required thedismantling of an existing obsolete pickling lineand replacing it with a modern pickling line inthe same location with minimum modificationto civil works and maximum re-use of the exist-ing heavy steel structure. The second picklingline required the conversion of the picklingmedia from sulphuric acid to hydrochloric acidand the design of new pickling recirculatingequipment and a new rinsing section.

The main parameters of line 1 are:– Material H R Low C steel – Thickness (mm) 1.2-6.0 – Width (mm) 1050-1850– Productivity (max) 2.2Mt/y (405t/h)– Line speeds (m/min) 800 entry; 300

process; 360 exit

Process lines

Fig 2 Air jet headers with water headers in between during installa-tion in the cooling section of the furnace Fig 3 Turbulent shallow tank for pickling with HCl



Project Success Without doubt the best reward after so muchplanning and dedication was to see a successfulmill start-up. This success could easily be seenwithin the first month of commissioning whenthe first coil of rod was produced perfectlywithout creating any scrap. This is difficult toaccomplish in new mills, and was only achievedthrough a rigorous testing plan that was com-pleted in full, with no missed stages.

Customer participation was instrumental inthe project’s success, and the VotorantimMetais team was involved during all phases ofimplementation and closely supported the ini-tiative of having a full test programme beforeinitiating hot testing with bars.

In the design of the water treatment plant,water quality and the ease of operation of thering filters exceeded the expectations ofVotorantim Metais.

Soon after start-up, the mill produced wirerod 5.5mm in diameter, at a speed of 105m/s atthe laying head and the time gap betweenrolling each was just 4 seconds measured at thefirst stand, giving production rates higher thanexpected.

Contact:

Russula South America, Av Ibirapuera, 2907, Torre C,

Cj: 620, Indianópolis, Sao Paulo, 04029–200, Brazil

Tel +55 11 5044 8847, Fax +55 11 5044 9883

e-mail [email protected] www.russula.com

consists of chemical addition, mixing, lamellardecanting, and filtration. The water is then sentto a decalcifier to soften it and then throughreverse osmosis membranes to produce dem-ineralised water.

This high quality of water is necessary to pro-tect mill equipment. The softened and dem-ineralised water is mixed with process waterafter filtering and cooling and returned to thecontact and non–contact water circuits.

Process lines

Fig 6 The Ring Filtershave a smaller foot-print and weigh less

than conventionalsand filters

Total Contact Water: 3100m3/h (13649gpm)– Mill Phase I: 2400m3/h (10566gpm)– Down Stream: 160m3/h (705gpm)– Continuous Casting Mill:

540m3/h (2378gpm)

Total Non Contact Water: 7754m3/h (34143gpm)

– Rolling Mill (Phase I):920m3/h (4050gpm)

– Melt shop: 3334m3/h (14680gpm)– Down Stream: 480m3/h (2114gpm)– Self Container: 560m3/h (2466gpm)– Compressors: 210m3/h (925gpm)– Fox: 450m3/h (1982gpm)– Dedusting: 1800m3/h (7926gpm)

Water usage at Votorantim Metais

Panel 2

In a conventional design, the excess water issent to a plant for neutralization. The conse-quences are on the one hand a cost penalty andon the other loss of the resultant chlorides.

The Zero effluent concept achieves near totalrecovery (99.9%) of the metal from the spentsolution as oxide and regenerates the acid usinga pyrohydrolysis principle in which the metalsalts in the spent pickling solution are convert-ed to their oxides using steam and oxygen athigh temperatures. Hydrochloric acid is alsorecovered in its free and bonded state.

The oxide by product is a high-quality ironoxide powder suitable for sale to the ferrite andpigment industries or the ARP can be operatedto produce oxide in granulated form for reusedin steelmaking (Figs 4 & 5).

This concept has been applied by Tenova innumerous projects assuring the following benefits:

• Investment saving:– No need for a waste water treatment plant for acidic effluents;– Only one combined scrubber system forthe ARP and Pickling Line.

• Operation costs:– Efficient use of water, combined Rinse &Off-gas scrubber system;– No neutralisation costs chemicals/sludgedisposal, etc;– loss of HCl practically zero.

• Environment:– Respect of strict emission values (imposed in European Union).

Zero Effluent ConceptTenova’s Zero Effluent concept consists of aneffective process tank pickling system (suitablefor capacities up to 300kt/y) and a rinse system,using part of the rinse water from the tankfumes scrubber.

This scrubber has a dual function and it isengineered to clean:

A high speed wire-rod mill for Votorantim Metais� 48

Fig 4 HCl acidregenerationplants to regen-erate exhaustedacid and treatwaste rinsewater

Fig 5 Acid regeration plant with zero emis-sion discharge

– the off-gas coming from the Acid Regeneration Plant; and

– the fumes collected by the Pickling Tank suction ducting.

The design assures the respect of strict emis-sion values without the use of alkaline chemi-cals. The acidic water from the rinse sectionand the scrubber can be fully used in the AcidRegeneration Plant in the absorption step.

With such a compact plant, it is possible toachieve the highest environmental standardsand product quality with minimum investment,energy and consumption values.

Contact

Tenova SpA, Via Monte Rosa 93, I-20149, Milano, Italy

Tel +39 02 43847785 Fax +39 02 4384 7261

e-mail [email protected]

web www.tenovagroup.com



Furnaces

AUSTRIA’S voestalpine is a leading Europeansteelmaker for special high-grade steels andhigh added-value products. It specialises inquality steel strip, rails, special tubes and high-quality wire.

In 2008, voestalpine commissioned its latestwalking beam reheat furnace of 420t/h capaci-ty. Designed and supplied by Fives Stein andusing their Digit@l furnace® concept, recog-nised as a leading walking beam furnace tech-nology, this new investment perfectly meetsvoestalpine’s vision to offer innovative productsolutions one step ahead of their most demand-ing customers.

ObjectivesThe new furnace is located at voestalpine flatproducts steel plant in Linz, Austria, near thecity centre, and surrounded by mountains,emphasising the environmental constraints tobe considered.

The investment was aimed at providing anadditional 420t/h reheat capacity for high quali-ty steel while reducing maintenance costs andimproving energy savings and furnace reliability.

Along with tighter environmental regulationsin Europe, voestalpine targeted a higher pro-ductivity associated with high quality productsto anticipate the needs of their most demandingcustomers.

To achieve these objectives, in terms of per-formances and delivery schedule, Fives Steinwas selected as supplier thanks to its innovativesolutions and focused project management.

The Digit@l furnace was successfully startedup in a record time of 21 months from designto production. It has been in operation sinceMay 2008 and has already processed more than5Mt of high quality steel.

Lowering emissions and energy with theDigit@l furnace and Advantek CWF burnerCombining Five Stein’s Digit@l Furnaceconcept with a new Advantek CentreWide Flame (CWF) dual fuel burner hasresulted in a 40% reduction in emissionsin a 420t/h reheat furnace at voestalpine,Linz.

During the execution of the contract, fromconstruction to start-up, Fives Stein focused onthe health & safety of the operators, togetherwith environmental concerns thanks to theimplementation of their latest technologies.During the site period, zero Lost Time Injury(LTI) occurred, confirming Five Stein’s commit-ment to its employees, customers and partners.

Scope of workThe scope of work consisted of the completedesign, engineering, supply, supervision of erec-tion and commissioning of the furnace. Along

with the furnace itself, the charging and dis-charging machines were included in the con-tract as well as the Evaporative Cooling System(ECS) to cool the furnace off-gas and producesaturated steam for use in the works.

The furnace parameters to reheats high qual-ity products are shown in Table 1.

The voestalpine furnace meets the highestEuropean safety standards (IC61508 stan-dard), and the complete installation has suc-cessfully passed the severe TÜV standards forcertification.

Green Features

Dual fuel firingThe Digit@l furnace supplied to voestalpine isable to use two different types of gas. The burn-ers can work either with natural gas and/ormixed gas (up to 87% blast furnace gas blend-ed with natural gas at 13%). Each burner hastwo gas intakes, one for natural gas (NG) andone for Blast Furnace Gas (BFG). Mixing ofthe two gases is achieved directly inside theburner by accurate flow control. There is noneed for any gas blending station which offers

Table 1 Furnace parameters

Steel Grades C&Si Steels

Throughput (t/h) 420

Charging Temp ºC 20 – 700

Combustion fuel NG & NG/BFG

Furnace length (m) 54.4

Furnace width (m) 12.8

Slab Dimensions – length 5000 - 12200

(mm) Width x 700 - 1750

thickness x 150 - 250

The 420t/h reheat furnace at voestalpine for high grade steels

Day mean value NOx June 2009 (BFG+NG)300

250

200

150

100

50

0

1/6/09

mg

/m3

NO

x (5

% O

2)

6/6/09 11/6/09 16/6/09

NOx WBF Limit NOx

21/6/09 26/6/09

Fig 1 Mean NOx emissions are half those of the maximum permit-ted when using Natural gas alone

Day mean value NOx (NG)

25/5/10

300

250

200

150

100

50

001/6/10 06/6/10 11/6/10 16/6/10 21/6/10 26/6/10 01/7/10 06/7/10

mg

NO

x (5

% O

2)

NOx WBF Limit NOx

Fig 2 Mean NOx emissions are only one third those of the maximumpermitted when using a blend of Natural and Blast Furnaces gases

FIVEs_Layout 1 3/29/11 10:43 AM Page 1


Furnaces

180000

160000

140000 120000

100000

80000

60000

40000

20000 13864

Apr 07 May 07 June 07 July 07 Aug 07 Sept 07 Oct 07

84246

136274

155549 152583 161383 163812

0

Ton

nes

greatly reduced maintenance and operatingcosts. Priority is given to using mixed gas assoon as it is available to reduce fuel costs.

Switching from NG to mixed gas(NG+BFG) or vice versa is 100% automaticand independent of operator intervention.Moreover, the combustion system is self-adap-tive to any BFG variation in supply.

This dual firing system developed by FivesStein and proven in several installations offersgreat flexibility combined with outstandingreliability.

To control and reduce emissions, NOx valuesare continuously monitored when using eithernatural gas alone or mixed gas (BFG+NG).Thanks to the Digit@l furnace technology,voestalpine’s target to produce fewer emissionsthan the regulatory permit are fulfilled beyondexpectations as illustrated by Figs 1 & 2.

As well as the outstanding results in decreas-ing emissions, the consistent value of the lowemissions, despite production variations,demonstrates the stability and flexibility of thefurnace.

Fig 3 illustrates the very rapid productionramp-up of the Digit@l furnace which constant-ly satisfied the mill demand, and reached closeto the maximum furnace capacity in less thanfour months after start-up. Losses as scale wereless than 0.7% as guaranteed by Fives Stein.

Fig 3 Full productionwas achieved within6-months

Fig 4 The AdvantekCWF dual fuel burner

Energy savingsThe energy recovery systems include evapora-tive cooling and supply about 6t of saturatedsteam per hour. This is fed to the plant's steamnetwork and can be used to drive the steel-work’s power plant turbines.

The main advantage of this technology is theincreased operational efficiency of the plant.

Customer will thus benefit from savings not onlyin energy but also in reduced CO2 emissions.

Advantek CWF BurnersFives Stein continuously improves its equip-ment performances to offer greater thermaltransfer to the steel product.

A major recent development is the newpatented Advantek® CWF (Centre Wide Flame)burner, significantly reducing emissions andreducing the energy consumption of the furnace.

After many FEA simulations and analysis,real tests campaigns were conducted at FivesStein Manufacturing testing centre in France toconsolidate the outstanding results. These testsdemonstrated great performances, reducingemissions to 40% of that of a conventionalburner.

Through the successful relationship betweenFives Stein and voestalpine, Fives Steininstalled several Advantek CWF burners eachof 6MW capacity in the Linz furnace to confirmthe reliability and performances in actual indus-trial operations.

The new Advantek CWF burners have beendeveloped to be installed on both new andexisting furnaces. The burner’s design offerseasy and fast installation during furnacesrevamps thanks to their simple refractory geom-etry (Fig 4).

These success agreed by voestalpine confirmFives Stein’s technical and project managementexpertise to design, procure and install world-wide reheating furnaces including eco-friendlyand high performance equipment in very chal-lenging time frames.

Contact

Fives Stein, 3 Rue Jules Guesde ZAI du Bois de l’Epine

91031 Evry Cedex, France

Tel +33 1 60 91 12 55, Fax +33 1 60 91 12 70

e-mail [email protected],

web www.fivesgroup.com

Visit Five Stein at the ThermprocessExhibition held in Düsseldorf, Germanyfrom 28th of June to 2nd of July 2011.

Booth, number 9F45.

IN recent years, the CIS Metals Summit hasgrown from a largely steel affair to one thatincludes both base and precious metals, andsometimes mining in CIS countries. These lasttwo elements have a dedicated initial day whichthis year saw the total number of participantsreach 250 including over 50 senior executivesof the largest CIS metals companies makingpresentations.

Thus in 2011, the Adam Smith CIS MetalsSummit included two conferences: the 6thAnnual Precious Metals conference and the16th Annual CIS Metals Summit.

Over 150 delegates attended the CIS MetalsSummit 2011, which started on 16th February.

The Summit's eight sessions discussed issuesimportant to steel producers: The marketdemand in CIS countries, establishing a singlemarket in Russia and Ukraine, main trends ininternational marketing, changes in globalprices and successful sales strategies, financingto modernise production facilities, and the pos-sibility of a double dip recession in the metalsmarket.

As last year, this year’s Summit attracted onlya few CIS steel producers beyond Russia andUkraine as presenters of papers but instead

Conference Report: 16th Annual CIS Metals Summit in Moscow

A report by Alex Gurov – Steel Times International, Moscow

many presentations were from consultants,bankers and publishers, who mainly addressedthe fall in the world steel market, pricing andinvestment.

The event helped participants to take a clos-er look at the strategies of the leaders of metalcompanies and listen to the opinions of execu-tives of leading foreign and CIS companies onthe pressing issues of the metals market.

The morning session which covered futureplanning in the age of uncertainty was chairedby Vadim Makhov of TAD Metals, a US baseddistributor and processor of aluminium andstainless steel. Speakers included members ofthe Russian Federal Anti-monopoly Service,UK’s Iron and Steel Statistics Bureau, Fond ofthe Russian pipe industry and Gazprombank.

Pricing & global developments The second session of the morning discussedthe developing business scenarios and newinvestment projects by CIS market leaders.Session 3 heard presentations by consultingcompanies on the problems on internationalmarkets, particularly Asia. This was followed bya video link discussion with Mr Lawrence Fok,Chief Marketing Officer of the Hong Kongstock exchange.

Panels discussed the prospects for demandfrom the CIS domestic market and the devel-

opment of the CIS metals industry. This wasmoderated by Dr Vladimir Vlasyuk ofUkrpromvneshexpertise (Ukraine) and themain speakers on the panel were the UnitedMetallurgical Company (OMK) – a major pro-ducer of pipe and railway wheels in Russia, anda representative of Russia’s only primary alu-minium producer, UC Rusal. This, in fact, wasthe only presentation from an aluminium com-pany and dealt with financing rather than theindustry itself.

Day two focused on the Middle East. Thissession brought together players in the CIS andMiddle East metals markets to discuss tradeunder the chairmanship of Mr Hadi Hami(Alam Steel – a fabricator of heavy truck bodiesbased in Kuwait) and included speakers fromIran and UAE. The next session discussed newapproaches for financing modernisation ofplant presented by the chairman of Russiansteel producer Mechel. A forecast for futureprices followed under the chairmanship ofFrancis Browne, Platt Metals Group.

The Summit concluded with a session on rawmaterials chaired by Vladimir Terlovoy(Ukraine) and which reviewed the Russian andCIS raw materials market as the key to marketgrowth.

www.cismetals.com

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56– April 2011 – Steel Times International

Conference report

The biennial Forum and luncheon of UK Steel attracted 135 delegates to hear about the importance of UK’s manufacturingindustry to the economy and what the Government could do to help stimulate growth and innovation.

Forum presentationsAs in 2008, Sheffield based steel price forecastconsultants MEPS sponsored the event. MEPSprovide regular digital commentaries on steelprices for Europe and developing markets aswell as a global stainless steel review. Monthlypaper publications in each of these topics arealso published (www.meps.co.uk).

Founder member and MD, Peter Fish,showed price trends over the past 33 Quarters(from January 04) for flat and long products.For flats, since the devastating drop from a highof around €850/t in July 2008 to a minimum of€420/t in May 2009, the price trend has risensteadily despite an end of year dip in 2010, andin January 2011 was at around €590/t. MEPSforecast the increase will continue to the middleof this year reaching €830/t, not far short of the2008 peak, before dipping again to near currentlevels (Fig 1).

A similar trend is also seen for long products,although the peak price in July 08 just toppedthat for flats reaching €860/t, while the peakforecast price which is expected in July 2011 islower than for flats at €750/t (Fig 2).

Examining the influence of raw materialcosts on steel prices, Mr Fish anticipates a peakore price in Q3 this year at around €390/t butwith steel prices peaking towards the end of Q2at €800/t. For EAF mills, scrap prices areexpected to be highest in Q2 at about €400/t ata time when long product selling prices reach€720/t.

Comparing 2010 with 2011, the cost of pro-ducing steel is anticipated to rise across the EUcountries by €20bn, impacting on building andconstruction most severely at €8.0bn, onmechanical engineering and metalware by€5.4bn, automotive €3.2bn, tubes €2.4bn andappliances & others €1.0bn.

The next speaker was Dr Rod Beddows,President and co-founder of HCF InternationalAdvisors, but previously founder of Beddows &Co which was acquired by the Hatch group in1998. Dr Beddows then acted as a Director onthe Hatch Board helping to form HatchCorporate Finance which is presently undergo-ing a management buy-out under its new nameHCF International Advisors.

UK Steel forum – The importance of manufacturing to GDP

Dr Beddows reviewed the earlier success ofBritish Industry from the start of the 18th cen-tury Industrial Revolution saying that PatentLaw was a vital driver for innovation at thattime as it protected intellectual property. Today,it is sadly less effective and the protectionafforded was both short lived and often circum-navigated. He also stressed the importance ofthe then British Empire as a market and asource of raw materials, but also recognised theloss of some entrepreneurial spirit to UK at thattime as people left the country to find their for-tune in the Empire.

Today, a major asset to Britain is the Englishlanguage which is, for example, the reasonLondon has become the major financial centreof Europe, such service industries supplantingmanufacturing as the country’s main economicgrowth driver.

Ironically, wars have assisted manufacturingindustry which has been in decline since WWII,a trend continued with the end of the Cold War.Financial services were encouraged by govern-ments through deregulation to become thechief economic driver. It is difficult for suchservice industries to increase productivity.While UK’s manufacturing industry hasincreased its productivity 36.7% in the pastdecade, service industries have managed lessthan half this (15.7%).

UK, said Dr Beddows, requires a GDPgrowth of 1% to absorb its labour force, 1% forthe health service and 1.0% for pensions neces-sitating an annual 3.5 to 4.0% growth just tokeep its current standard of living. If achieved,such growth would be the fastest in recent his-tory. Only manufacturing can provide such arapid increase. New technologies, almostunheard of 20 years ago, such as mobile tele-phones, portable computers and the ever grow-ing demand for technology was capable of gen-erating such growth.

He concluded by saying governments shouldset the context for industry to thrive but notintervene with subsidies and grants. Ratherlower taxes and fewer regulations are needed.

ManufacturingAdrian Allen, Commercial Director University

THE importance of UK’s manufacturing sectorproved a particularly apt theme since UK’s finalquarter 2010 GDP growth figures revealed thatwhile overall growth had fallen back to a nega-tive -0.5%, growth from manufacturing industryhad actually risen by 0.9%.

Sadly, today, this sector only accounts for 13%of GDP input contributing just 0.1% to theoverall Q4 GDP.

Addressing the meeting in London on 27January, Chairman UK Steel, Tarlok Singh andMD of Niagara LaSalle (UK) commented thaton the whole 2010 had turned out to be betterthan feared largely thanks to the stimulus meas-ures introduced by the then Labour government,and the quantitative easing and low interest ratesadopted by the Bank of England.

He warned, however, that 2011 would bemore difficult as the current Conservative gov-ernment’s measures to rapidly cut the deficit arecausing job losses and hence a reduction inspending power, in addition to inflation and theincrease in VAT driving up prices to consumers.

Despite recovery in steel output from operat-ing plants, overall output in the final quarter2010 was one-third lower than in Q4 2009,largely as a result of the stopping by Tata Steel ofiron and steel production on Teesside. On amore positive note, Thai steelmaker SahaviriyaSteel Industries, is to reopen and expand the3Mt/y Teesside plant. Mr Singh also regrettedthe demise of Carrington Wire – at one time oneof UK’s largest wire producers.

Raw material prices were also escalating withore now quoted on a quarterly basis and therecent floods in Queensland, Australia have alsopushed up both ore and coking coal costs. Tocompound matters, the UK government is intro-ducing Climate Change legislation which will bethe most severe across Europe.

This, with changes in the way low carbon elec-tricity is subsidised, could increase power pricesto industry some 70% by 2020.

Mr Singh said that the projects presented dur-ing the morning’s forum were steel intensive butwarned that if the UK government insists on lay-ering on more and more costs to UK’s steelmak-ers the beneficiaries to these projects would besteelmakers in Russia, the Ukraine and China.

Fig 1 EU average price for flat products 2004-2010 and forecast to2012 (€/t) Source: MEPS

Fig 2 EU average price for long products 2004-2010 and forecast to2012 (€/t) Source: MEPS

920 910

310

510

710

Jan 11 ForecastActualYearly Average

Jan 11 ForecastActualYearly Average

570

770

370

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Conference report

trials in the Strangford Narrows in NorthernIreland.

SeaGen uses twin 16m diameter rotors (eachakin to a twin blade propeller) to develop arated power of 1.2MW at a current velocity of2.4m/s (Fig 4). The system is accredited toOFGEM as an official UK generating stationand regularly runs at full rated power. It has thecapability to deliver about 5MWh per tide, ie20MW per 24 hours which, allowing for main-tenance, could provide around 6000MWh peryear. This is approximately the rate of energycapture that a wind turbine of about 2.4MWrated capacity can typically produce. SeaGenshows that the tides are not only more pre-dictable than wind but twice as productive.Power can be generated on both the ebb andflow of the tide only being interrupted for ashort time at slack water as the tide turns.Presently, SeaGen, installed in May 2008, isoperating at a 66% load factor and availabilityof 85%.

The world’s first tidal turbine was tested in1994 in Loch Linnhe Scotland. From thisemerged the prototype 300kW Seaflow turbineinstalled in May 2003 and decommissioned inOctober 2009 and then SeaGen.

An innovative feature of SeaGen is that theboom on which the turbines are mounted canbe raised above water level for ease of mainte-nance.

Although the turbine blades are constructedof carbon fibre composite (and hollow to allowthem to be flooded when in the water toincrease momentum), because of the need to

build an off-shore pylon, construction is steelintensive. A planetary gearbox based on a heli-copter rotor gearbox has been developed totransmit the drive power to the generator forhigh reliability.

The global potential for tidal generation iscalculated at 470TWh a year of which a total of149GW is presently captured. Questioned onthe problem of silting up of the channel asexperienced by the tidal power station on theRance Estuary near St Malo, France, built in1966, Mr Wright said Rance was a barrage sys-tem and thus relied on the potential energy ofwater flowing from a higher level to a lower,unlike SeaGen which relies on the kinetic ener-gy of the tidal stream which scours the channelkeeping it free of silt.

Mr Wright bemoaned the lack of investmentin tidal power pointing out that £1bn is beinginvested in research for carbon capture andstorage – much of this being public money, aswell as massive investments in wind power gen-eration, a typical off-shore array costingbetween £80-100M. Investment to date in theSeaGen project has been £38M.

An array of seven SeaGen generators is pro-posed for a channel between the Skerries offthe north-west coast of the island of Anglesey,North Wales in partnership with npower. EachSeaGen will be capable of generating 1.5MWto provide a total output of 10.5MW.

Jim Steer, Director Steer Davies Gleave andDirector of Greengauge 21, (www.green-gauge21.net) established in 2006 to researchand develop a high-speed rail network for UK,spoke on UK’s HS2 programme. This initiallyenvisages the development of a high speed raillink between London and the West Midlandswith spurs to Heathrow and BirminghamInternational airports. (HS1 – the 108kmChannel tunnel Eurostar rail link to Londonwas completed in November 2007 at a cost of£5.2bn and allows speeds of 230-300km/h).The estimated cost of HS2 to Birmingham is£16.5bn with construction to start in 2015. ThisHS network would operate at 320km/h(192mph) halving the present journey time to45 minutes. The network would later beextended north to Manchester and ultimatelythen splitting into a west coast route toGlasgow and an east coast route to Edinburgh,reducing journey times to these cities fromLondon to 2 hours 40 minutes compared withthe present 4 hours 30 minutes. Also, a HS rail(200km/h 120mph) is envisaged from Londonto Bristol and Cardiff.

At these speeds, HS rail offers an attractivealternative to domestic and international airtravel with, for example, the journey time fromManchester to Paris being reduced from thepresent 5 hours 50 minutes to 3 hours 30 min-utes or from Birmingham to Paris from 5 hoursto 3 hours.

The Guest Speaker during the Luncheon wasMichael Portillo, a former Member ofParliament and Minister in the ThatcherConservative government. He addressed theWestminster scene and present coalition gov-ernment. He addressed fears that the steps toreduce the UK deficit would lead to a doubledip recession, pointing out that the governmentrelies on growth for all its income and was aim-ing for a 2% growth in GDP this year and 3% insubsequent years.

UK Steel, Broadway House, Tothill Street,London SW1H 9NQ Tel 020 7222 7777Fax 020 7222 2782 e-mail [email protected] www.eef.org.uk/uksteel

of Sheffield Advanced Manufacturing ResearchCentre (AMRC) (www.amrc.co.uk/) describedhow the Centre which opened on a brownfieldsite in nearby Rotherham in 2004 brings togetherUniversity research and high-tech manufacturingcompanies to form the ‘Factory of the Future’.Boeing is the major sponsor, but was only one of64 present partners including such companies asABB, Sandvik Coromant, Rolls Royce,Houghton, Fuchs, Carpenter, Morgan Ceramicsand Alcoa. One of the aims of the centre was tobring innovation to industry more speedily. Heused the example of his development years ago ofa new means of cutting titanium 20 times fasterthan conventional methods but this was still notin commercial use due to disinterest in movingfrom conventional methods.

Currently, the Centre has five Divisions,Innovative Metal Processing Centre (IMPC),Advanced Structural Testing Centre, AssemblyCentre and Composite Centre. An EnergyResearch Centre, temporarily housed at theDalton Nuclear Institute in Manchester, willmove to the AMRC campus in September. Itsrole presently focuses on electricity generation bynuclear power but its remit is expected to widenin the future to include other low CO2 emittersof energy production such as renewables.

Mr Allen also mentioned patents, but foundthem of little help as they are too easily copiedand said the ‘advanced method’ was to keep ondeveloping products so as to always be one stepahead of the competition.

Examples were given of improved tools formachining which not only lasted longer butenabled faster cutting rates and hence greaterproductivity per machine. Also, improving man-ufacturing techniques, for example for aero-space components where conventionally 90%or more of the metal is machined away fromstarting blanks, reduces costs and increases pro-ductivity. One futuristic manufacturing methodcurrently being developed is additive manufac-turing in which a component is ‘grown’ ratherthan machined. The example he chose was thefront half of a human skull which was grownfrom Ti-6Al-4V alloy in a process which tooktwo weeks. For aerospace components, aninternational collaboration within the EUFramework 6 programme has developed RAP-OLAC (Rapid Production of Large AerospaceComponents) which uses shaped metal deposi-tion (SMD) to manufacture componentsformed by welding a continuous metal wire intothe desired shape (Fig 3) www.rapolac.eu/. Thisreduces the wastage involved in machiningparts from a larger block, and removes the needfor the expensive tooling used in forging. UsingSMD, the time required to design and producea large aerospace component such as an enginecasing can be reduced from nine months to afew weeks and with a 73% saving in costs sinceit greatly improves the ‘fly-to-buy’ ratio, avoid-ing the need to machine components from solidblocks of material as presently practiced.

Such high tech techniques can negate theadvantage of low labour costs in Asian manu-facturing centres.

AMRC also has an education role and takes a‘Road Show’ in a truck to schools in the regionto encourage an interest in manufacturingindustry.

Tidal PowerMartin Wright, MD Marine Current TurbinesLtd (www.marineturbines.com) described thedevelopment stages of SeaGen, a tidal currentelectricity generator presently undergoing sea

Fig 4 SeaGen tidal generator. The rotors canbe raised up the column for maintenance

Fig 3 Advanced manufacturing techniquesinclude shaped metal deposition (SMD) forthe rapid manufacture of components byTIG welding a wire strand around a former

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History

SWORDS that were exceptionally hard so as toretain a sharp cutting edge but also toughenough to absorb blows in combat withoutbreaking became known to Europeans duringthe Christian Crusades in the Middle East inthe twelfth century. Consequently, they wereknown as ‘Damascus’ swords. The namederives not from their place of origin but fromthe place where Europeans first encounteredthem during the Crusades.

They may have been in use much earlier dur-ing the time of Alexander the Great about 323BC when he invaded India where the steel theywere made from was called Hinduwani orIndian steel. ‘Cakes’ of this material about thesize of a hockey puck were widely traded by theArabs. The Arab, Al-Edrisi in the 12th centurycommented that: “The Hindus excelled in themanufacture of iron and it is impossible to findanything to surpass the edge from Hinduwanior Indian steel”. The term Wootz was coinedfor this material when European travellers fromthe 17th century onwards came across steel-making by a crucible processes in SouthernIndia in the present day states of Tamil Nadu,Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. These steelcakes were also known in medieval Russiawhere they were called ‘Bulat’. Swords madefrom Wootz had a characteristic wavy patternclearly seen on a polished blade and for cen-turies they remained objects of fascination forEuropean smiths and scientists (Fig 1).

Jean Robert Bréant (1775-1850) at the ParisMint undertook a series of experiments fromwhich he realised in 1821 that the strength andtoughness of Damascus steel arises from itshigh carbon content. Later, a two-volumemonograph titled ‘On the Bulat’ was publishedin 1841 by the Russian engineer Pavel PetrovichAnosoff (1799–1851). Anosoff dedicated hislife to the study of Damascus steel and believedthat the re-discovery of its secret would revealnew aspects in steel technology. His goal, how-ever, was never realised. The basis for a scientif-ic understanding of these steels was not estab-lished until the turn of the twentieth centurywhen a number of investigators worked out thephase transitions that steels undergo as a func-tion of temperature, cooling rate and carboncontent. Damascus steel is a high carbon steelcontaining 1.5- 2% carbon and trace elements.

The manufacture of the ancient IndianWootz involved heating a mixture of iron oreand charcoal in a stone hearth, the productwrought iron, has a low carbon content. Smallpieces of the metal were then mixed with char-coal in a sealed clay crucible about 7cm indiameter and 15cm tall and the crucible heatedto a high temperature. At this temperature irontakes up carbon at the surface lowering themelting point of the metal, thus a thin moltenlayer of iron forms on each of the pieces. At thatpoint, the crucible was taken out of the furnaceand cooled slowly over a period of days.

During cooling a homogeneous distributionof carbon throughout the steel takes place.When the temperature of the metal fell belowabout 1000°C, some of the carbon precipitatedout of solution as iron carbide (Fe3C) known ascementite, forming a network around theaustenite grains. The slow cooling allowed theaustenite grains to grow. Below 727°C the aus-

tinite grains transform to ferrite. It was thiscoarse network of carbide that led to the visiblemarkings on Damascus swords. The hot ingotscould be further forged into blades and tools orwelded to other ingots to increase the mass ofthe steel for larger items.

The cementite, however, has certain negativequalities. Although it is very hard, it is alsoextremely brittle at room temperature. YetDamascus swords were the opposite of brittle:they were tough. Wootz acquired toughnessafter it had been forged when the cementitenetwork was broken up by the extensive ham-mering. Hammering the cake at a temperaturebelow 850°C breaks the continuous cementitenetwork into spheroidal particles. The carbideparticles still served the function of strengthen-ing the steel, but because they no longer form acontinuous network, the metal was not brittle.

After forging, Damascus blades were hard-ened by heat treatment. Thermal hardening of asteel is achieved by heating to above 727°C (thetemperature at which body-centred ferrite beginsto be converted into face-centred austenite) andthen quenching it in water thus the transforma-tion of austenite into a mixture of cementite andferrite – known as pearlite – is suppressed.

The iron crystals become body-centred, butthey are stretched from a cubic form into tetrag-onal, forming a distorted lattice known asmartensite which still has room for carbonatoms, which makes it hard. An abundance ofmetallic carbides in the steel matrix precipitatesout in bands, making Wootz steel display thecharacteristic banding seen on its surface.

In general, according to modern metallurgi-cal theory, the strongest and toughest steels arethose with the finest grains. Medieval smithsundoubtedly used the characteristic surfacemarkings as a form of quality control: thedamask markings were evidence both of a highcarbon content, which made the blade strong,and of a well-forged structure, which made ittough. A damask would only be visible, howev-er, if the cementite particles in the steel werecoarse and unevenly distributed. Blades inwhich the distribution of carbide was so finethat it produced no visible surface markings –such as the Japanese Ninja sword – would beeven stronger and tougher. Modern simulationof Damascus blades manufacture involves slowcooling to produce a coarse, continuous cemen-tite network at the austenite grain boundaries.Re-heating to 800°C and forging or rolling,which simulated forging, stretches the grainsand breaks up the carbide network. When thesteel is etched with an acid that attacks the iron

matrix preferentially over the carbide, a damaskpattern becomes visible to the unaided eye.

The discovery that vanadium is effective inproducing banding of Fe3C in high-carbonsteels arose from the accidental use of Sorelmetal as a raw material for making the smallingots. Sorel metal is a high-purity Fe-C alloy,containing 3.9-4.7%C, marketed by Rio TintoIron and Titanium America.

The alloy is produced from a large ilmeniteore deposit at Lac Tio on the north shore of theSaint Lawrence River. Analyses of severalbatches of Sorel metal showed that it consis-tently contained a few hundred ppm of vanadi-um as an impurity.

Evidently the vanadium is contained in theilmenite ore. Low levels of vanadium have alsobeen found in ancient Wootz steel blades sug-gesting the possibility that vanadium may haveresulted from ore deposits in India where theWootz steels were produced. Then, after a fewcenturies, the ore source may have beenexhausted or become inaccessible to the com-munity; therefore, the technique no longerworked.

Thus, by blending the unique characteristicsof Wootz steel with a forging process thatincluded tiny amounts of specialised materials,the blacksmiths of the Islamic Civilization wereable to create Damascus steel blades.

What happened in the mid-18th century wasthat the chemical makeup of the raw materialaltered – the minute quantities of one or moreof the elements causing banding disappeared,perhaps because the particular ore lode wasexhausted. �

Suggested readingH Föll, ‘Damascene Technique in Metalworking’,www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def_en/kap_5/advanced/t5_1_1.htmlM Sachse, Damaszener Stahl – Geschichte, Mythos,Technik, Anwendung, Verlag Stahleisen, Düsseldorf1993 [English edition] Damascus Steel: Myth,History, Technology, ApplicationsS Srinivasan and S Ranganathan, India’s LegendaryWootz Steel: An advanced material of the ancientworld National Institute of Advanced Studies and theIndian Institute of Science in Bangalore, 2004J D Verhoeven, ‘The Mystery of Damascus Blades’,Scientific American pp 74-79 (2001) January J D Verhoeven, A H Pendray, and W E Dauksch, ‘TheKey Role of Impurities in Ancient Damascus SteelBlades’, JOM 50 (9) , 58-64 (1998)J Wadsworth and O D Sherby, ‘On the Bulat—Damascus Steels Re-visited’, Progress in MaterialsScience 25, (1), 35-68 (1980)

Laval University,

Quebec City, Canada

[email protected]

Pioneers of steelmaking: Part 1 - Indian Wootz steel

By Fathi Habashi

Fig 1 The character-istic pattern on a

‘Damascus’ swordblade forged fromWootz steel is dueto segregation ofmassive carbides

HISTORY apr_Layout 1 3/25/11 10:43 AM Page 1

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