The mill is the first of its type in Vietnam and is intended to accommodate the growing demand for thinner cold-rolled materials.

The scope of supply included the complete mechanical and electrical equipment, and supervision of installation and commissioning.

The Hyper UC-mill provides high reduction capability and shape controllability in high-tensile-strength steel rolling, and can be applied to the rolling of high-grade non-directional electrical steel sheets and sheet products. The mill will process sheets 0.1 mm in thickness and 1,250 mm in width.

Meanwhile in Europe, voestalpine recently commissioned a new type of direct reduction plant built by Primetals Technologies and has carried out the first production tests. 

“The first tests were successful," the company said in a statement. 

Primetals Technologies and voestalpine are testing the plant builder’s HYFOR ironmaking technology. HYFOR, which stands for hydrogen-based fine-ore reduction, is a hydrogen-based reduction process that can convert fines to iron without the need for intermediary agglomeration processes like sintering or pelletizing.

“HYFOR represents the only process worldwide capable of processing iron ore concentrate fines in which the particle sizes are all smaller than 0.15 mm and a wide variety of ores, such as hematite and magnetite, supplied by different customers of Primetals Technologies worldwide,” the company said. 

According to Primetals Technologies, the pilot-scale plant will be in operation over the next two years and will conduct multiple production campaigns to test various ore types and to evaluate the optimal process parameters for the next scale-up step.