Major South Korean steelmaker POSCO is expected to improve the product quality of its wire rods. "We are carrying out the test run of a new soaking pit at our billet mill," said an official at the company.
POSCO is scheduled to finish the test run of the new soaking pit by the end of this month under the timetable for a startup in October. The existing two units of reheating furnaces at the billet mill of the company have a problem of excessive carbon concentration when producing high carbon alloy steel, which could lead to fatigue cracks in wire rods.
In this connection, POSCO has introduced a soaking pit that can improve the product quality of its wire rods without reducing its production volumes.
Meanwhile, POSCO, which produced 2.03 million mt of wire rods in 2010, is expected to produce 2.1 million mt this year, boosted by the stabilization of operation of its production facilities from the beginning of this year