Primetals Technologies said in an announcement that the ESP mill, the fifth such mill installed at the steelmaker’s plant in southern Shandong province, will annually produce 2.2 million metric tons of ultrathin hot strip. It can make strip as thin as 0.6 mm and as wide as 1,300 mm. 

“The new Arvedi ESP plant enables Rizhao Steel to further expand its production capacities for high-grade, thin-strip products and production of cold-rolled substitutes,” Primetals Technologies said in a statement. 

Arvedi ESP plants link casting and rolling, allowing hot metal to be converted into hot-rolled strip in a continuous and uninterrupted process. Doing so reduces power consumption and related costs and lowers carbon dioxide emissions.

“Furthermore, with a length of only 162 m, the dimensions of the Arvedi ESP plant No. 5 at Rizhao Steel are clearly more compact than those of conventional casting and rolling plants,” Primetals Technologies said. 

Primetals Technologies said the mill has been optimized for low-energy rolling of ultrasoft steels. It also has been equipped with features that will allow it to make a hot-rolled alternative to cold-rolled steel that meets the highest cold-rolled standards for the direct application market. 

“This leads to lowest energy consumption and related CO₂ emissions for direct application products,” it said.