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SMS Meer to Supply Seamless Tube Plant with PQF for Baosteel Subsidiary Yantai

08/08/2008 - SMS Meer will supply an 18-inch premium quality tube finishing plant for Yantai Baosteel Pipe Co.

Yantai Baosteel Pipe Co. Ltd., part of China’s Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., has placed an order with SMS Meer, Germany, to supply an 18-inch PQF® plant.
 
The new plant, equipped with the PQF (Premium Quality Finishing) method, will expand the upper end of Yantai Baosteel’s size range for seamless tubes, particularly for the high-grade tube segment. The company currently produces tubes from 21.3 to 1,420 mm from three existing plants previously supplied to Baosteel by SMS Meer.
 
The new plant will be capable of producing 520,000 tonnes of seamless tubes a year. Tubes will have diameters from 244.5 to 457.0 mm, with wall thicknesses up to 55.0 mm. Baosteel will deliver the starting material by sea from its own steelworks to the port of Yantai, which is adjacent to the Yantai Baosteel facility.
 
The new facility will combine high-alloy and stainless steels with large diameters and high quality finishing available wit the PQF technology. The key units alone will have an installed maximum power of more than 80,000 kW.
 
The heart of the plant—the PQF mill—will be equipped with individual roll drives and an all-hydraulic roll adjustment system. To ensure constant premium quality, the whole plant is monitored and controlled by the SMS Meer’s CARTA® technology system.
 
SMS Meer is to supply all the key components of the mill equipment for the PQF plant, including media systems and automation. The scope of supply also includes project management, supervision of erection and commissioning and training of the operating personnel.
 
The new plant is scheduled to go into operation at the beginning of 2010. It will be the eleventh PQF plant worldwide and the sixth in China that SMS Meer has installed since the technology’s market introduction in 2003.
 
SMS group is, under the holding SMS GmbH, a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It consists of the two Business Areas SMS Demag and SMS Meer, which jointly form SMS metallurgy. In 2007, some 8,000 employees worldwide generated a turnover of about EUR 3.0 billion.