Chinese giant steelmaker Baosteel has announced that, as the biggest producer of assembled continuous casters in China, it now holds over a 70 percent share of the domestic market for high-end continuous casters.
Baosteel recorded this achievement through its joint venture subsidiary BaoLing Heavy & Industrial Machinery Company Limited (BLHI), which is located in the city of Changzhou in the eastern province of Jiangsu. To date, BLHI has produced the fastest continuous casters in China, and its casters produce the widest, thinnest and thickest slabs in the country.
BLHI produced the fastest continuous caster in China for Magang, with a speed of eight meters per second. 3.25 meters is currently the greatest slab width produced by continuous casters in China; there are only four such casters in China, manufactured by BLHI, and located at Baosteel, Nangang, Angang and Shaogang. Meanwhile, the thinnest and thickest slabs produced by BLHI's continuous casters measure 50 mm and 300 mm respectively.
Baosteel has invested significantly in BLHI to improve its technological levels and manufacturing skills, and the subsidiary also made remarkable progress by learning from world leaders such as SMS Demag and Siemens VAI. Currently, BLHI's major products include continuous casters, rolling mills, seamless tubing mill tools and other equipment for steelmaking.
Along with its rapid growth, BLHI is aiming to be one of the top heavy equipment manufacturers in the world. It has already expanded into the overseas markets and, in the first seven months of 2007 sold over 1,000 of its continuous casters to over 20 countries. German-based PrineTragere Company recently put into use an assembled non-conventional continuous slab caster, the biggest of its kind in the world - which was produced by BLHI.