| Other Info |
Introduction to the Equipment Purchased from Geneva Steel, USA
1. Characteristics of the Equipment
Equipment purchased from Geneva Steel comprised of:
1) One (1) 235 ton (American ton) Ladle Metallurgical Furnace, designed and manufactured
by SMS Demag, Germany, and was put into production in 1997.
2) One (1) set of 3200mm wide slab caster designed and manufactured by SMS Demag,
Germany, which is the widest and most advanced caster on the world. The caster was
commissioned in 1994 and is the widest single/twin strands slab caster on the world.
The slab can be as wide as 3200mm when single strand operation and the thickness
can be adjusted from 152.4mm to 254mm.
a) The mold is of totally protected casting and equipped with level automatic control
facilities.
b) The mold has a breakout prediction system.
c) The mold is designed to be capable to adjust the slab width on line.
d) Level 2 computer controlling system is adopted.
3) One (1) 3352mm plate/strip hot rolling line comprised of one (1) 4-high reverse
rougher and 6 stands tandem hot rolling mill, Geneva Steel conducted significant
updates through 1995 to 1998.
a) One (1) 4ˇÁ4042KW four-high reverse roughing mill.
b) High pressure de-scaling system, pressureˇÝ19.6MPa
c) One (1) set of largest coil box on the world, with the maximum coiling width
of 3200mm, maximum coiling thickness of 38.1mm.
d) The finishing mill motor power is 3675KW.
e) The finishing mill is equipped with hydraulic AGC (Auto Gauge Control system)
f) The finishing mill is equipped with hydraulic bending system
g) The finishing mill is equipped with fast roll changing system.
h) Advanced laminar flow cooling system.
i) There are three (3) down coilers after the finishing mill. The largest down coiler
is capable to coil strip thickness up to 25.4mm,and it also is the widest down coiler
on the world.
4) One (1) 3200mm plate finishing line.
5) One (1) 3200mm plate cross cutting line, built up in 1997.
6) One (1) 2200mm cross cutting line.
The main product of Geneva Steel includes ship building steel plate, pipeline steel
plate(X60), pressure vessel steel plate, bridge structural steel plate, container
steel plate, structural steel plate and low alloy high strength steel plate. What
is more, it can also produce cold rolling base plate (thickness between 1.5 and
3.0mm), Geneva Steel had ever been the supplier of two American cold rolled punching
strip producers.
2. Equipment Update Plan
Since early 2005, Qingdao Iron and Steel invited Baotou Iron and Steel Design and
Research Institute, Siemens VAI, Danieli, China No.1 Heavy Machinery Research Institute
and China No.2 Heavy Machinery Research Institute to discuss on process layout and
equipment update plan, the discussion results a 1+7 process layout (1 roughing mill
+ 7 finishing mill). A F0 stand added on the finishing train can help to increase
the capacity of the finishing mill. This can also increase the variety of products
and more steel grades. Geneva Steel existing equipment can roll pipeline steel up
to X60, the new arrangement can roll X80, ship building steel grade can also be
updated from AH32 to DH36.
3. Products Advantages
The current widest strip coil ever produced in China is of 2100mm width by 2250mm
rolling mill, no coil with greater width was found. The capacity of rolling strip
coils between 2100mm and 3200mm is the unique advantage of this 3352mm rolling mill.
No competitors can roll such wide coil at home and abroad. Main advantage of the
product as followings:
1) Currently, plates on the market with the width of 2100mm to 3200mm are mostly
produced with the heavy or medium heavy plate rolling mill, another small part are
produced with steckel mill. Normally, the costs of both mills are 150 ¨C 300 RMB
Yuan higher than semi-continuous rolling mills. It is very hard for heavy and medium
heavy rolling mills to produce some thin plate, which results higher price. For
example, plates of 8 to 10mm in thickness by Wuyang Iron and Steel Company cost
600 RMB Yuan more per ton in price, and plates of 6 to 8mm in thickness by Jinan
Iron and Steel Company cost 150 RMB Yuan more per ton. Strip with thickness between
6 and 10mm is right the product of this 3352mm rolling mill.
In 2005, annual turnover of hot rolled strip took 55% of the total plate production
in China. This figure was 32% in 2000. China boosts more and more 1500mm and 2250mm
hot rolling mills, the increasing production shows that for common steel grades,
strip is more advantageous with its low cost over plates.
Property stability and dimensional accuracy of the heavy and medium heavy plate
product in China are not good enough out of disadvantageous heavy and medium heavy
plate mills, metallurgical technology and lack of controlled cooling. Most newly
built heavy and medium heavy plate mills in China are over 3500mm in width, so the
hot rolled strip of width under 3200mm is advantageous over the single plate on
quality.
Baotou Iron and Steel Design and Research Institute made a statistic in 2006 on
the Chinese heavy and medium heavy plate rolling mills, about 10 million tons of
heavy and medium heavy plates are of low grade and low quality, product of the 3352mm
mill can substitute all those products with competitive price.
2) Great advantage can be found in pipeline steel production. China has far more
distance to catch up with developed countries on oil and gas transportation pipe
project. The oil and gas pipeline in the United States is about 3.2 million km in
total while China has only 45 thousands km, the oil pipeline in China is 3.5% of
what in USA and natural gas pipeline is only 2.8%. The United States built up 800
thousand km gas pipeline, Germany 370 thousand km, Russia 220 thousand km, Japan
207 thousand km, China 24 thousand km. During the next 5 years, China Petroleum
planned to invest RMB 100 billion Yuan to build up several oil and natural gas transportation
pipelines with the total length of 150 thousand km, of which, 8000 km pipeline for
natural gas transportation, 3000 km and 4000 km for crude petroleum and product
oil respectively. It is supposed that the total natural gas pipeline will reach
50 thousand km, the oil and natural gas pipelines will be 80 thousand km by 2020,
even though, the total pipelines in China will be only one quarter of that of the
current USA.
Products of the 3352mm mill are mainly used for straight seam welding pipe. A survey
was made on Fanyu Steel Pipe Company who bought from Geneva Steel the pipe making
equipment which matches our 3352mm mill, they believe the cost will be lower to
make pipe with strip coils than with straight plate, and the quality are the same,
they are crying for the product of the 3352mm mill.
This mill can produce coils for pipes with diameter of¦µ711, ¦µ813, ¦µ914 and ¦µ1016.
Products of the 3352mm mill can also satisfy the natural gas pipeline from the west
to the east of China which requires the steel grade of X70, pipe diameter of ¦µ1016
and the thickness of 15mm.
3) Pipes for liquid media transportation need thin and wide plate which the current
heavy and medium heavy mills are not capable to produce. For example, Fanyu Steel
Pipe Company is a supplier of the American market, they needs steel plate with the
dimension of 6.35mmˇÁ2.8m (thickness by width). They weld pipes with double stitched
seam welding process which is complicated and with high cost. The 3352mm mills can
produce plate they needed.
4) Ship building plate: according to the statistics of 10 different kinds of typical
ships, 45% of steel plates are of 25.4mm in thickness, 2.1 to 3.2 m in width and
A, B, AH32 in steel grade. It is prospective in the ship building steel plate market.
This 3352mm wide strip rolling line is the widest on the world, no similar products
can be found within China, thus great market potential is expected.
|
eMail