Turkish steelmaker Colakoglu Metalurji AS has placed an order with Concast AG, Zurich, for a single All-Convex continuous caster. The caster, which will have a capacity to produce two million tonnes per year, is part of the company’s plant renewal program in Gebze, Turkey.

Colakoglu currently produces about 1.6 million tonnes per year with two 5-strand Concast casters dating from the mid-1970s. The existing casters will both be replaced by the new 8-strand caster. With a casting capacity of well over two million tonnes per year, Colakoglu’s new caster for will be the highest productivity billet caster ever installed.

Concast’s innovative All-Convex CCM technology for high-speed casting will enable the new caster to reach production speeds of up to 300 tons per hour, a new productivity benchmark for billet casters.

Colakoglu will use its new caster to produce 130 mm square billets in low-, medium- and high-carbon steel grades for structural steel, wires, rods and bars. The caster will be fed by a butterfly-type ladle turret and a single 300-tonne capacity tundish. The discharge area will have two cooling beds, each serving four strands.

The new caster is scheduled for start-up in 2006.