South African steel producer, Mittal Steel South Africa, says its R578-million relining of the Vanderbijlpark Blast Furnace D to increase capacity at the plant is scheduled to start in February 2007.
This forms part of the company’s R8-billion capital expenditure programme to increase its production of liquid steel. This is in addition to the R1-billion it is spending at its various operations on environmental projects, it said in a statement on Thursday.
The reline will increase the production capacity of Blast Furnace D by an additional 150 000 tonnes of liquid iron production per annum. Currently, Blast Furnace D produces 1,7-million tonnes per annum.
Rick Reato, Mittal Steel South Africa’s CEO, says the reline is a major part of the company’s expansion programme and will go a significant way to improving production capacity at Vanderbijlpark.
“The additional capacity we are adding at Vanderbijlpark will allow Mittal Steel South Africa to be able to meet the increasing domestic demand for steel, especially from the construction sector in the run up to the Soccer World Cup in 2010.”
Work on the reline will start in February and will last for 95 days. It is estimated that 2 500 contractor labourers will be on site per day during the peak of the civil and engineering work.
Contract work started nearly a year ago in an effort to complete as much work as possible, which is not outage related. This work will continue into the shutdown with the major part of the civil work completed before February 2007.
The reline will see the total replacement of the furnace shell, enlargement and modernisation of the stock house, replacement of the hot blast system, replacement and modernisation of the cooling system, replacement and modernisation of the charging system, partial replacement of the off-gas system, modernisation of the cast house, partial replacement of the slag granulation system, modernisation and replacement of electrical and control system and full replacement of refractory lining.
Reato says equipment and refractory are being supplied from all over the world including China, Brazil, Italy and South Africa.
“Mittal Steel South Africa is managing the project work but our contractors are mainly South African of which Grinaker LTA, ELBateman Engineering, Babcock, Harisson and White, Dickinson Refractory and Group Five are the most prominent,” he said.
In order to limit the impact of the shutdown of the blast furnace on its customers, Mittal Steel South Africa has imported 135 000 tonnes of slabs so it has sufficient stock on hand to meet their needs during this period.
The company will also be increasing the throughput of all other production units, including the electric arc furnaces to limit the loss in production as a result of the planned shutdown of Blast Furnace D.
Reato says the company’s expansion programme is going according to schedule, and the company is confident it will meet all its deadlines with regards to increasing its capacity.
“This expansion plan has been on the drawing board since 2004 and we have to date completed all our scheduled projects on time and within the deadlines set by the board.” – I-Net Bridge