The Russian steelmaker and iron ore producer Evraz Group (Evraz) has completed the reconstruction of the continuous billet caster No. 2 at its subsidiary Nizhny Tagil Iron and Steel Works (NTMK).
The reconstruction, which was carried out over two weeks, included the replacement of the caster's equipment, and also the repair of the ladle furnace. NTMK casts more than 3,000 mt of billets per day at its continuous billet caster No. 2.
NTMK's continuous caster No. 2 was put into operation in 1996 and has to date cast more than 15 million mt of billet. The caster has a designed annual capacity of over one million mt of slab and bloom billet of 240 mm thickness.
Currently, four concasters are operating at NTMK's converter shop, casting a total of four million mt of steel per year. As SteelOrbis previously reported, Austria-based giant engineering and plantmaking company Siemens VAI Metals Technologies (Siemens VAI) is to start reconstruction of NTMK's concaster No. 3 in the very near future, which will allow the increase of the unit's annual production capacity from the current level of 700,000 mt to up to one million mt.
At the same time, within the framework of the contract signed with Evraz in 2006 for the modernization of NTMK's oxygen converter shop, Siemens VAI is to upgrade the plant's oxygen converter No. 4. Previously, the Austrian plantmaker reconstructed NTMK's converters Nos. 1, 2 and 3. Following the implementation of Evraz's investment projects, NTMK will be able to increase the output of its oxygen converter shop to 4.5 million mt of steel per year.