Shougang to commence trial runs on new plate mill

SteelOrbis Shanghai Beijing-based Shougang Corporation is planning to start trial runs of hot load on 4,300 mm wide and heavy plate mill at the end of September 2006. Introducing the technology from the SMS Company, the entire 4,300 mm mill equipment and its process adopts the reversing four-high mill of high rigidity, with the largest rolling load at 90,000 kN. Furthermore, equipped with a 1,780 m3 blast furnace, a 100 ton converter, a LF – RH refining furnace, and a continuous casting machine for 320×2,400 mm large-sized slab, the equipment owns the best slab-supply conditions in the world, which will be beneficial in broadening product variety and in improving product quality. The project has a designed annual capacity of 1.2-1.8 million metric tons of wide and heavy plate production. The products can cover all wide and heavy plate types, meeting the market demand for high-strength shipbuilding plate, high-strength structural plate, boiler container plate, offshore platform plate, etc. The product specifications are as follows: thickness 5-100 mm, width 1,500-4,100 mm, length (first stage) 3,000-12,000 mm, length (second stage) 3,000-28,000 mm. Shougang is the seventh largest steelmaker in China with crude steel production of 6.15 million metric tons in the first seven months of 2006.