According to Fives, the project is intended to increase the efficiency and capacity of the two walking beam furnaces that serve the facility’s No. 1 hot strip mill. 

“The modernization aims to optimize the overall furnace heat distribution by integrating a new combustion zone. It will ensure homogeneous heating of slabs throughout the furnaces and will enable them to increase their capacities,” Fives said. 

The furnaces, installed in 1994 and 2003, have a capacity of 250 metric tons per hour each. The project will lift their capacities to 295 metric tons per hour. 

The project is to be completed next year.