core sector communique

SMS MEER

Hengyang Valin Steel commissions PQF seamless tube plant

Hengyang Valin Steel Tube from Hengyang, Hunan Province, China, has commissioned a new PQF plant from SMS Meer. The facility is designed for a maximum capacity of 500,000 typ. The company’s total annual production capacity has thus been increased to over 2 million t.

The plant produces  tubes up to a diameter of 180 mm, closing the gap in the middle-size range at Hengyang.

Hengyang already operates three seamless tube plants supplied by SMS Meer. With the new PQF plant, the company is able to react to changes in market demands at any time.

The size range of the new PQF facility is such that various production capacities can be taken over from the older plants a 5 ½ MPM and a 13  3/8 MPM.

All the units are designed for production of higher-alloy steels in order to be able to meet the future demands of the market.

Integrated into the new PQF plant are an extracting mill and a stretch-reducing mill. In addition to the two core machines, the corresponding roll stands and changing facilities from part of the scope of supply.

Successful commissioning at Eastern Copper

The Chinese copper wire rod producer, Eastern Copper from Linyi, Shandong Province, recently commissioned the second CONTIROD CR 3700 continuous copper wire rod plant. The complete plant was supplied by SMS Meer and has an annual capacity of 320,000 t of rolled wire rod. It is thus the plant with the highest capacity in China.

‘’The new plant impressed Eastern Copper with its high energy efficiency, good productivity and product quality,’’ said SMS Meer’s Dr. Michael Schwarze.

With this increase in production capacity, Eastern Copper aims to expand its market share.

The new plant consists of a shaft-type melting furnace followed by a 20-t holding furnace. In order to achieve high wire rod qualities, the CONTIROD line is equipped with a Hazelett twin-belt caster and a continuous SMS rolling mill with 14 mill stands.

The mill stands are equipped with individual drives and the main drives of the mill and fans all feature variable-frequency 3-phase AC motors, thus reducing the energy consumption. The modern electrical systems and automatic process control from SMS Meer ensure smooth and reliable operation. The plant is completed by an automatic compacting, strapping and film packaging line for the wire rod coils.

The CONTIROD plant achieves a casting capacity of 48 t/h with a casting cross-section of 8,610 mm and a casting speed of approx. 10m/min. The standard finished size is 8.0 mm in diameter.