The Turkish steelmaker Yesilyurt has disclosed to SteelOrbis its plans to expand its billet production capacity to 1.3 million metric tons a year through installation of a new six-strand continuous billet caster at its plant in Samsun in Turkey's Black Sea region. The new caster is scheduled to be put into operation in late March of 2008.
The new mill is suitable for open and close billet casting and will be able to produce billets with low, medium and high alloy and carbon composition.
The billets produced by the new caster will be 100-200 mm in thickness and 4,500-14,000 mm in length.
Turkish firm CVS Machine has been chosen as the main supplier of equipment for the expansion.
In addition, Yesilyurt is planning to expand its product range by adding sections to its existing production of 8-32 mm rebar. The expansion of the range of manufactured products will allow Yesilyurt to gain a competitive advantage in the steel market.
Furthermore, Yesilyurt plans to moderate its EAF to increase its capacity to 80 mt from current 70 mt. The company is planning to start this project by the fourth quarter of 2008.
Currently, Yesilyurt's production capacity includes one million metric tons of crude steel and also 600,000 metric tons of rebar. The company's exports occupy a 30 percent share of its overall production. Upon completion of all modernization projects, Yesilyurt plans to increase the percentage of its exports.