September 08, 2008
South Steel orders minimill for Jizan Economic City
Saudi Arabian South Steel Pan Kingdom Invest Co has placed an order with German group SMS’s Concast and SMS Meer for planning, engineering and supply of plant and equipment for its minimill South Steel Factory’s Phase 1 strategic plan of developing a steel cluster at Jizan Economic City.
For this complex, Concast and SMS Meer are supplying a complete minimill comprising a steel plant with an annual production of 1 million tonnes and a connected rolling mill for the production of 500,000 tonnes per annum of rebars.
On the melting side, plant productivity will be guaranteed by a new 140 tonnes AC electric arc furnace, melting 24 heats per day with a charge of 80 %HBI and 20% scrap. EAF features a full platform and EBT design and retains the possibility of running with a 100 % scrap charge. Power input is ensured by a 120 MVA transformer used in conjunction with the Consotech equipment for the chemical power input. The melting unit is also equipped with the latest generation electrode control system and process automation, allowing the best possible operational flexibility to cope with different charge compositions, as well as a constant and reproducible operation of the melting process.
Secondary metallurgy will be managed by a 140 tonnes ladle furnace. LF operation and metallurgical process control will be guaranteed by the Concast process control system.
On the continuous caster to be supplied by Concast, with a radius of 9 meter and five casting strands, 1 million tonnes of billets will be produced each year in the dimensions 130mm and 150mm. Half of the production will then be transferred still hot to the rolling mill for further processing while the remaining amount shall be for sale on the local and regional markets.
The rebar rolling mill will be supplied by SMS Meer, including the walking hearth furnace with several control zones. In each zone it is possible to monitor the fuel to air ratio in order to minimize fuel consumption while achieving high furnace flexibility for all production quantities. The fully automated rolling mill comprises 16 housing less stands in horizontal and vertical arrangement, followed by a 6 stand Monoblock finishing stand for high-speed rolling of bars, a bar quenching system, a cooling bed and all necessary finishing and bundling facilities. The compact design of the “HL” mill housings ensures finished products with close tolerances. The supply range includes the Level 2 automation and all electrical equipment.
The modern mill design also reduces maintenance time and cost. The maximum possible finish-rolling speed to the cooling bed of 41 meter per second for 8mm and 10mm rebars is achieved with the HSD® system, which greatly enhances the mill productivity.
The entire plant concept meets all requirements for efficiency, flexibility and reduced maintenance.
