Iskenderun Iron & Steel Works Co. (Isdemir), Turkey, a member of the Erdemir Group, has awarded an order to SMS Demag, Germany, for a twin-strand continuous slab caster.

Equipped with resonance moulds, the caster is designed to produce 225-mm thick slabs ranging in width from 1000 to 2050 mm, and for twin casting in the range 800 to 900 mm. The facility is designed for an annual capacity von 2.5 million tonnes.

SMS Demag’s scope of supply also comprises the mechanical equipment and the higher-level electrical and automation systems, including Level 2 with a dynamic cooling model. The process control computer and the integrated quality control also belong to the supply scope.

The continuous caster will be equipped with SMS Demag’s patented soft-reduction technology. SMS Demag will supply the dynamic segment adjustment for minimization of center segregation and for suppression of central porosity, thus facilitating the production of high-grade steel types and providing the caster with a high degree of variability.

The slab caster is scheduled for commissioning at the beginning of 2007.

Although Isdemir currently produces long products only, it is now moving into the manufacture of flat rolled products within the scope of a comprehensive modernization program. Within this program, SMS Demag has received an order for an oxygen steel plant with three converters and a twin-strand slab caster. Commissioning of the first converter and of the first continuous caster is scheduled for April 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.