Jiangyin Xing Cheng Special Steel Works Co. Ltd., P.R. China, has placed an order with Concast AG, Switzerland, for the supply of a three-strand bloom caster.

The new 900,000 tonnes per year bloom caster will cast 370 x 490 mm blooms. It will be equipped with state-of-the-art technology such as submerged casting by stopper control, resonance mould and hydraulic oscillation, mould and strand stirrers, and mechanical soft reduction. SMS Demag will also supply a sophisticated process control system for dynamic control of process parameters and assurance of product quality.

The new caster will be fed from the new 80 tonne converter meltshop at Jiangyin, which is currently being commissioned. It will be used to extend Jiangyin’s leadership position in the production of high-quality steel grades for the Chinese automobile industry and pipe steel.

This order follows Jiangyin’s successful operation of its first bloom caster, originally supplied by SMS Schloemann-Siemag in 1996.

Concast AG forms part of the Metallurgical Plant and Rolling Mill Technology Business Area of the SMS group. SMS GmbH is the holding for a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering relating to the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is divided into the Business Areas of Metallurgical Plant and Rolling Mill Technology, Tube, Long Product and Forging Technology and Plastics Technology. In the year 2004 some 9,500 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.20 billion.