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SMS Meer to Supply Rail and Section Mill for Baotou Steel Union

May 5, 2004 — The Inner Mongolia Baotou Steel Union Co., Ltd., China, has placed an order with SMS Meer GmbH, Germany, for the supply of a new rail and section mill for its Baotou works.

The new mill consists of two duo reversing roughing stands, a tandem reversing mill with two universal duo stands and an edging stand. Downline of the tandem mill is an automatic stamping machine for individual marking of the rails and a walking beam cooling bed with a device for pre-bending the rails. Rails are straightened exclusively on a horizontal/vertical roller straightener that was commissioned last summer.

SMS Meer GmbH will supply the process automation and technological control systems for highly dynamic hydraulic roll gap adjustments for the tandem stand group and for the duo reversing roughing stands, as well as training and supervision of erection and commissioning of the rolling mill line.

Rails will be produced on the new mill using the universal rolling method on a tandem reversing stand group utilizing Compact Cartridge Stands (CCS® stands). Characterized by quick program changing, the CCS stands are equipped with a hydraulic adjustment system to permit close rolling tolerances. More than 37 stands of this stand generation have been sold to date.

Rail rolling on a tandem reversing group is a process developed and patented by SMS Meer that is already successfully in operation at numerous rail manufacturers worldwide, such as INI Steel, Korea, Steel Dynamics, USA, and Anshan, China.

With a rated capacity in excess of 900,000 tonnes per year, the new mill will produce rails, beams, U-sections, angles and special sections as well as square billets. Commissioning of this plant is scheduled for mid-2005.

This contract, SMS Meer’s third recent rail mill for China, follows rail mill projects with Anshan and Panzhihua.

SMS Meer GmbH forms part of the Tube, Long Product and Forging Technology Business Area of the SMS group. The SMS group is 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 2003 around 9500 employees worldwide generated a turnover of around EUR 2.20 billion.

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