German plantmaker SMS group has announced that its subsidiary SMS Concast will modernize the existing six-strand billet caster of Chinese steel producer Huaigang Special Steel, a subsidiary of Jiangsu Province-based steelmaker Shagang Group. The main motivation for this project is the move towards special bar quality (SBQ) steel grades serving the automotive and mechanical engineering industries.
SMS Concast has developed an innovative solution which will allow the production of high-end products on only five strands but with the same annual production capacity. In order to achieve the required SBQ steel qualities, the technology of dynamic mechanical soft reduction (DMSR), which enables the reduction of the strand thickness as early as in the final solidification stage, will be applied. Huaigang is the first customer in China to use this process specifically for billets.
The billet caster is scheduled to be commissioned by the end of 2021.