Acting as leader of an international consortium, SMS Demag AG, Germany, has successfully commissioned Chinese SBGC Shanghai No. 1 Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.’s new stainless steel meltshop. The unit was started two months ahead of schedule.

SMS Demag's scope of supply included engineering, supply of core components, supervision of fabrication at the local fabricators, automation system and supervision of erection and commissioning. The new meltshop includes a 120-tonne electric arc furnace, 135-tonne AOD converter and a 135-tonne ladle furnace. The first cast on the downstream SMS Demag-supplied continuous caster had already taken place a few weeks before. Annual capacity for the new meltshop will be 720,000 tonnes of slabs.

The new meltshop will produce stainless steel grades including 201, 304, 316 (austenitic) and 430 (ferritic), among others.

Combining stainless and carbon steel meltshops in one complex provides Shanghai Iron and Steel a maximum degree of flexibility with optimal utilization of the production equipment and utility supply systems. The new unit is the second stainless meltshop SMS Demag has supplied for Shanghai No. 1. SMS Demag has also supplied the company with four vertical-bending continuous casters.

SMS Demag AG forms part of the Metallurgical Plant and Rolling Mill Technology Business Area of the SMS group. SMS GmbH is the holding for a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering relating to the processing of steel, non-ferrous metals and plastics. The group is divided into the Business Areas of Metallurgical Plant and Rolling Mill Technology, Tube, Long Product and Forging Technology and Plastics Technology. In the year 2004 some 9,500 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 2.20 billion.