On March 15, Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) announced that it will supply a five-strand combi-caster to Handan Steel Works, part of Handan Iron & Steel Co. Ltd., China. The new plant will be capable of producing a total of 1.45 million metric tons of beam blanks and blooms per year and is scheduled to commence production operations in the summer of 2011. The order is worth approximately ten million euro. During the past four months Siemens VAI had already received orders from Handan Iron & Steel for the supply of a rod and a bar mill.
The new continuous caster for Handan Steel Works will cast structural steels, high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels as well as bloom sections for rails. It will be able to cast blooms with rectangular sections of 325 x 280 mm and 380 x 280 mm, and beam blanks in three different formats: 446 x 260 x 85 mm , 450 x 350 x 90 mm and 750 x 370 x 90 mm.