On July 15, Austrian plantmaker Siemens VAI Metals Technologies announced that it has received a contract from steel strip producer Hoesch Hohenlimburg GmbH, a subsidiary of German steelmaker ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe AG, to modernize the medium-wide strip hot rolling mill at the company's Hagen location.
The project includes the complete replacement of five rolling stands and the revamping of two additional stands in the finishing mill. The project is scheduled for completion by mid-January 2013. The order volume exceeds €20 million.
With the completion of the project, the rolling mill will have an annual capacity of 1.35 million mt of medium-wide strip with thicknesses ranging between 150 mm and 720 mm. The achievable strip thicknesses range between 1.3 mm and 16 mm with coil weights of up to 15 metric tons.
The rolling mill modernization will be carried out in two phases during scheduled mill downtimes. Modernization of two of the operating rolling stands and installation of two new stands is scheduled for the summer of 2012. Installation of the remaining three new rolling stands is foreseen for December 2012.