Giant Austrian-based plantmaker Siemens VAI Mining and Metals Technologies has announced that within a five-week period in Q3 2008 it commissioned five billet casters in Ukraine, China, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
Dneprovsky Iron and Steel Works named after F. Dzerzhinsky (DMKD), a subsidiary of the Ukrainian steelmaker Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD), saw the first-ever commissioning of Siemens' new seven-strand billet caster, which is capable of producing 1.7 million mt of carbon and low-alloyed steel grades per year for structural and tube-steel applications. Square billets are cast in sections between 130 and 200 mm.
Siemens VAI has also supplied DMKD with a 250 mt ladle furnace in addition to an identical billet caster, which is to be installed and commissioned at a later date. The installation of the new equipment is in line with DMKD's overall modernization campaign, and will allow the mill to produce a wide range of steel grades of an improved and more uniform quality.
Moreover, Siemens VAI supplied and installed new equipment for the casting of 240 mm square blooms in a six-strand bloom caster for German steelmaker Georgsmarienhütte, upgraded a six-strand billet caster with a casting radius of 8.1 m at the Italian steel producer Riva Acciaio SpA in Lesegno, started up a three-strand bloom caster designed with the option of an extension to five strands at steel plant No. 1 of China's Nanjing Iron & Steel United Co., and upgraded six-strand billet casting machine No. 3 at Saudi Arabian steel producer Saudi Iron & Steel Company (Hadeed).