Southern Steel Corp., Vietnam, recently initiated the first stage of its Phu My minimill startup with the commissioning of the 400,000 tonnes/year bar and rod rolling mill and delivery of its first hot rolled products.

The state-of-the-art bar and rod mill is fed by an 80 tonne/hour Danieli Centro Combustion walking hearth reheat furnace. The reheat furnace will ultimately be directly connected to the conticaster for billet hot charging.

The mill comprises 18 SHS housingless stands in horizontal, vertical and combined convertible H/V arrangement and a 10-pass DWB high-speed wire rod finishing block. The mill also includes production outlets for structural and quality steel straight bars, sections and wire rod in coils.

Product range from the mill is 10- to 50-mm diameter plain and deformed bars, 40- to 100-mm angles, corresponding channels and 5.5- to 16-mm diameter wire rod in coils weighing up to 2000 kg.

Slit-rolling technology is used for the smaller deformed bars, which are delivered onto cooling bed at speeds of up to 18 meters/second. Straight product finishing facilities feature an advanced CLS system for on-line straightening/cutting of bars and sections to commercial lengths, as well as automatic counting, bundling and stacking facilities for the same.

The wire rod line, designed for finishing speeds of over 100 meters/second, features a controlled-cooling conveyor suitable for fast, slow or natural cooling of wire rod loops and vertical-type coil finishing and collecting facilities.

Danieli Automation supplied all electricals and automation systems.

Danieli will also supply the new 500,000 tonnes/year steel meltshop for Southern Steel’s Phu My minimill. The meltshop, which will feature a 70-tonne EAF, Ladle Furnace, and Continuous Caster, is foreseen to start operation at the end of 2005.

Southern Steel Corp. is part of Vietnam Steel Corp. (VSC).