Iron & Steel Review October 2012 Issue

Demand and availability scenario for iron and steel products up to 2020

VIEWPOINT

Economic slowdown impacting Steel Industry
The market sentiment in the Indian iron & steel industry is not very positive. The road ahead is not smooth as well. The Indian steel industry is going from one problem to another.

Special Feature

Demand and availability scenario for iron and steel products up to 2020
Between 2002 and 2007 Indian steel industry grew in double digits. Based on this high growth, various estimates including that of Ministry of Steel, put the estimated demand at around 200 MT by 2020. Reputed foreign companies like POSCO, South Korea and ArcelorMittal showed interest in setting up mega steel plants in the country and MoUs were signed. Situation changed dramatically after that. Global recession since second half of 2008 affected performance in 2008-09 and to some extent in 2009-10. There was improvement in 2010-11 but 2011-12 was again a difficult year. This is due to a combination of global and domestic factors. It is, therefore, considered necessary to have a fresh look at demand availability scenario up to 2020.

NATIONAL TRENDS

New 400,000-tpy rebar mill for Abhijeet Group, India
The Indian market once again relies on Danieli technology for long products mills: this will be the 10th rolling mill supplied (five of which were for engineering and special steels) in the last five years, out of a total of 17.

Production with Conarc® and what is to be the world first three-strand CSP® plant
An additional five million tonnes per year of crude steel, hot-strip production increased by 3.5 million tonnes: in 2010 and 2011, Essar Steel India largely increased the production capacity at its Hazira facilities in the Indian state of Gujarat.

SAIL receives first prize in Hindi implementation and Rajbhasha journal
Hon’ble President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee presented the first prize on an all-India level to Chairman, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), Mr. C.S. Verma for SAIL’s excellence in implementation of Rajbhasha.
SAIL sweeps Vishwakarma Rashtriya Awards
“It is a matter of pride for all of us that more than half of the total awardees who have won the Vishwakarma Rashtriya Puraskar (VRP) are from Steel Authority of India Limited,” stated SAIL Chairman Mr. C.S. Verma at a felicitation ceremony for VRP awardees organised at SCOPE Complex, New Delhi on September 17, 2012.

GLOBAL TRENDS

• New hot skin-pass mill with in-line side trimmer at Gerdau Açominas, Brazil

  The contract for the new facilities to be installed in the Ouro Branco (MG) works, signed on November 30, 2011, strengthens Danieli Wean United’s presence in the Brazilian market, and advances its leadership in hot skin-pass mills with a score of 10 units supplied in 10 years.

• New ladle turret for Salzgitter Flachstahl Special installation concept

  SMS Siemag is revamping continuous caster 2 at the Salzgitter, Germany, works. Salzgitter Flachstahl placed an order for the supply of a new ladle turret. For this project, SMS Siemag has developed a special installation concept.

• Continuous casting plant and hot strip mill for Habas

  Turkish steel producer Habas A.S. has placed an order with SMS Siemag for the supply of a continuous slab caster and a hot wide strip mill. The new facilities will be built in Aliaga on the Turkish Aegean coast. They are slated for commissioning at the end of 2013. With these facilities, Habas is entering the flat steel segment.

• Tubos Reunidos, Spain RH plant with convincing cycle time

  Tubos Reunidos S.L.U., Spain, awarded SMS Mevac the order to supply RH plant. The plant will be designed to process more than 400,000 tonnes of vacuum steel per year for the production of seamless steel tubes of high cleanliness in terms of inclusions and very low gas content.

• Business expansion of Nippon Steel/WISCO's tinplate JV

  Nippon Steel Corporation announced that its joint-venture WINSteel with WISCO in Wuhan, China is now undergoing an expansion to double capacity by the end of 2013.

• Coal India to acquire coal mines in South Africa

  Despite the acute coal shortages the country is currently facing, Coal India Limited (CIL) moved a step forward with its plans to acquire coal mines abroad by initiating the process of forming a subsidiary in South Africa.

• World crude steel output report

  According to worldsteel’s most recent production report, crude steel production for the 62 countries was 124 million tonnes (mt) in August 2012, a decrease of -1.0 per cent compared to August 2011.

• Krakatau Steel to construct $400M Hot Strip Mill in 2013

  Indonesia’s largest steelmaker PT Krakatau Steel, plans to invest US$ 400 million on a new hot strip mill next year as part of its expansion plan. The company is conducting a feasibility study and should begin land acquisition gradually by the end of this year.

• Outotec expands its paste plant business

  Outotec has acquired all the shares of Australian-based Backfill Specialists Pty Ltd. The acquisition complements Outotec’s expertise in paste plants and enables the company to offer more comprehensive tailings treatment solutions to the mining industry worldwide.

• Outotec, Sandvik Mining ink MoU

  Outotec and Sandvik Mining have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to create a solid foundation for cooperating on future minerals processing solutions focusing on comminution.

FOCUS

Usage of IT in Steel Industry
Bhilai Steel Plant, 10 times (out of 18 times) winner of the prestigious Prime Minister Trophy for ‘Best Integrated Steel Plant’ is the largest steel plant of the “Steel Authority of India Limited”, the largest steel manufacturing company in India. Bhilai Steel Plant with capacity of 5.2 Million Tonnes (MT) has matured more than 50 years, and so are its systems and procedures. The company is well-known for its work culture, people, systems and practices. The plant had undergone capacity expansion in stages and along with the new equipment, it embraced computerisation and automation. The Usage of IT expanded, the architecture changed and matured along with the technology and increase in volumes of business of Bhilai Steel Plant. The steel industry provides a platform for Usage of IT in all aspects of business, however considering the harsh conditions of heat and dust, and the complexity of production processes, the task is challenging. A combination of various strategies is used for IT deployment in steel.

International Steel Tube Industry still heading for expansion
By 2010, the global production of steel tubes had already recovered from the dramatic downturn of 2009. This positive development in demand continued into 2011, so that, on a global scale, the industry recorded growth figures of around 11 per cent, rising to about 141 m metric tonnes and achieving an alltime production record.

COMPANY NEWS

B&W Mechanical Handling: Two Reasons to Celebrate
B&W Mechanical Handling Ltd. of Ely, in the country of Cambridgeshire, England, well-known for its range of Samson™ surface feeder equipment, mobile Shiploaders and the mobile Stormajor™ radial boom stacker, entered the AUMUND Group back in 2002 joining the existing core group members AUMUND Fördertechnik and SCHADE Lagertechnik. AUMUND Fördertechnik are well-known for their specialised conveying equipment mainly in the Cement, Steel and Mining industries. SCHADE are well established as a key market maker in the Stacker/Reclaimer business with extensive references in the Power and Coal Mining sectors plus Cement and Fertiliser.

Thermo Fisher Scientific embeds GPS functionality in all Niton XL3t Series XRF Analyzers
Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, introduced embedded GPS functionality in all Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t Series x-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers.

MARKET & PRODUCT

Metso Recycling's new TS Eco®Cut economical scrap shear is the perfect choice for entering the scrap processing market
Metso Recycling is introducing the new TS Eco®Cut, an economical, versatile scrap shear designed for a wide range of scrap types. The shear fits small to medium capacity demands and promises good performance at an entry level price. Proven features, such as a robust side compression system and an efficient hydraulic system, ensure optimised operation. Options like the 1 m or 1.5 m wide lid provide flexibility to adapt the shear to specific customer needs. The focus markets of the new scrap shear are North and South America as well as Asia Pacific.

Combined Bar and Wire Rod Mill
Among the most flexible configurations, the combined bar and wire rod mill using a single finishing block can either be operated to produce straight bars via the HSD® High-Speed Delivery System or switched to the production of wire rod in coils.

STEEL TECHNOLOGY

Industrial Furnaces for the Steel Industry
Andritz MAERZ is a 100% subsidiary of ANDRITZ AG, Austria who plan and install plants and systems worldwide.

Smart Injection Tools in DRI-Based EAF Processes: Tenova Injection System in PT Krakatau Steel
Massive usage of oxygen injection as a mean to reduce consumption of electric energy and to increase productivity in a cost-efficient way is nowadays a well established practice worldwide applied in almost all scrap-based EAF processes. However, in many cases significant improvements can be reached even in continuous-charge processes (e.g. DRI based) with relatively small efforts and investments, thanks to smart upgrades in the injection equipments. The outstanding results obtained by TENOVA in PT Krakatau Steel in 2010 are a good demonstration of this principle.

ENVIRONMENT

Bengal Steel Plants Not Following Environmental Norms, Says CSE
In accordance to a Green Rating Project (GRP), West Bengal steel plants are not following environmental norms and moving ahead polluting land, water and air. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research body from New Delhi executed this Green Rating Project on 21 large steel manufacturers, 16 of which are from the eastern part of the country, to find out the rate of greenness and cleanliness of the related sector. “West Bengal accounts for three of these, and all three have fared miserably in the rating”, said Chandra Bhushan, Deputy Director General, CSE and the head of the project.

STEELMAKING

Enhanced Slag Door for Electric Arc Furnace
In electric steelmaking, slag is a by-product of smelting metallic base material (scrap, pig iron, hot-metal, HBI / DRI) to separate the metallic fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form. While slags are generally used as a removal mechanism for unwanted phases or elements in metal smelting, they can also serve other purposes, such as assisting in the temperature control of the smelting; or minimising any re-oxidation of the final liquid metal product before the molten metal is removed from the furnace and used to make solid metal.

REFRACTORY

Improving Steel Ladle Metal Zone Lining Life at Tata Steel
During the past few years, efforts were incessantly aimed at increasing the life of the refractory lining and thus making the production process more cost-effective. The optimality criterion for targeting higher ladle life was assumed to be the higher refractory life of the ladle metal zone as slag zone bricks can be repaired during ladle campaign life. Hence, selection of high performance refractory for the metal zone is the most important aspect of ladle life.

LONG PRODUCTS

Introduction to Cryogenic Reinforcing Bar
Steel reinforcing bar has in the past been simply a common steel bar used as a tensioning device in reinforced concrete structures. It has been commonly formed from plain carbon steel, and the bar has been physically shaped for improved mechanical bonding with concrete. Strength and design requirements were variable and individual.

CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION

13th National Award Competition for Best Innovative Use of Steel in Architecture
Institute for Steel Design & Growth (INSDAG), an industrial body in Kolkata established by the Ministry of Steel, Govt. of India and chief steel producers in the country organised the 13th National Award Competition for students for Best Innovative Use of Steel in Architecture (2011-12), in Kolkata. The theme for this year was “Steel Intensive (B+G+4) Storeyed Office Building.” The function was inaugurated by Mr. Bimlendra Jha, Vice President, Long Products, Tata Steel Limited.