In a statement, Danieli said the project includes a new furnace hearth, tuyere ring and bosh area, as well as a cooling system for casthouse runners. 

“Using the input from earlier assessments and modeling of hearth erosion, a new hearth design based on large carbon blocks has been developed by Danieli Corus. The objective of this new design is to achieve a lifetime in excess of 15 years. The casthouse runners will be engineered to overcome thermal issues, improve accessibility between the main runner and taphole, and reduce the complexity of the backup layers of the existing runners,” Danieli said.