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Concast, SMS Meer to Provide Minimill for South Steel

12/04/2007 - South Steel-Pan Kingdom Invest. Co., Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, contracts Concast and SMS Meer to plan, engineer, and supply plant and equipment for a new minimill, including a flexible-charge EAF, continuous billet caster, and automated rebar rolling mill.

South Steel-Pan Kingdom Invest. Co., Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, has placed an order with Concast and SMS Meer to plan, engineer, and supply plant and equipment for a new minimill. The South Steel Factory is considered the Phase 1 of the strategic plan for a “Steel Cluster” that Pan Kingdom Invest Co. is building in Jizan Economic City.
 
As part of the country’s economic and social development program, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has founded so-called “Economic Cities” that will assist further regional and industrial diversification of the Kingdom. Jizan Economic City (JEC) will offer much greater employment opportunities for the southwest region of
Saudi Arabia through the establishment of a petrochemical and metallurgical complex.
 
Concast and SMS Meer will supply the complete minimill, comprising a steel plant with an annual production of 1,000,000 tonnes and a connected rolling mill capable of producing 500,000 tonnes of rebars per year.
 
In the meltshop, plant productivity will be guaranteed by a new 140-tonne AC electric arc furnace, melting 24 heats/day with a charge of 80% HBI and 20% scrap. The EAF features a full-platform EBT design, and is also capable of operating with a 100% scrap charge. Power will be supplied by a 120-MVA transformer used in conjunction with the Consotech equipment for the chemical power input. The melting unit will also be equipped with the latest-generation electrode-control system and process automation, allowing the best possible operational flexibility to cope with various charge compositions, as well as a constant and reproducible melting operation.
 
Secondary metallurgy will take place in a 140-tonne ladle furnace. LF operation and metallurgical process control will be provided by the Concast process control system.
 
The continuous caster, which will be supplied by Concast, will have a radius of 9 meters and five casting strands. It will be capable of casting 1 million tonnes of 130- and 150-mm billets each year. Half of the production will be hot transferred 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. Fuel/air ratios can be monitored in each zone in order to minimize fuel consumption while achieving high furnace flexibility for all production quantities.
 
The fully automated rolling mill comprises 16 housingless stands in horizontal and vertical arrangement, followed by a six- stand Monoblock finishing stand for high-speed rolling of bars, as well as a bar-quenching system, cooling bed, and all necessary finishing and bundling facilities. The mill will feature a compact design for the “HL” mill housings to ensure finished products with close tolerances.
 
SMS Meer’s HSD® (High-Speed Delivery) system will help to enhance mill productivity, allowing it to achieve a maximum finish-rolling speed to the cooling bed of 41 meters/second for 8- and 10-mm rebars. The entire plant concept meets all requirements for efficiency, flexibility and reduced maintenance, as well as operational reliability and high productivity.
 
SMS will also supply Level-2 automation and all electrical equipment.
 
SMS group is, under the SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2006, some 9,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.8 billion.