Aceralia Corporación Siderúrgica, SA (Arcelor Group), Spain, has placed an order with SMS Demag, Germany, to expand the gas generating plant for two 290-tonne converters in the LD Steel Plant A in Avilés.

Conversion of converter operation from alternating to almost parallel operation requires the steam generating plant to be adapted to two converters and thus to larger steam quantities.

SMS Demag’s scope of supply includes steam accumulators, feed water tanks, degassers, pumps, condensers and pipelines as well as steel structures. SMS Demag will also supply the electrical equipment, field instrumentation and automation, including the hardware systems, and will integrate all into the existing systems. Supervision of the installation activities and commissioning are also part of SMS Demag’s scope of supply.

The revamp will take place during pre-planned shutdown periods. With the upgrade, the plant’s annual production will increase to 4.3 million tonnes of liquid steel.

Commissioning is scheduled for July 2006.

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.