Nanjing Iron and Steel Group commissions upgraded continuous bloom caster from SMS Concast
Modernized bloom caster in China provides higher product quality and increased production flexibility
Nanjing Iron & Steel Group Co., Ltd. (NISCO) has commissioned the upgraded four-strand bloom caster at its Nanjing plant No.2 together with SMS Concast, a company of SMS group. The modernized caster, designed for an annual production of 800,000 tons of blooms, has successfully achieved the targets of the project, namely improvement of the product quality and more flexibility of production thanks to a wide portfolio of steel grades.
The four-strand continuous casting machine - having a nominal radius of 12 meters – is designed to cast two bloom section sizes. Currently in operation is the 255 x 300 millimeter format. Commissioning of the second bloom size – 330 x 420 millimeters – is planned for the end of 2020. High-carbon grades, such as bearing and spring steels, and the full range of steel grades to serve the automotive industry represent the majority of the production. This product portfolio provides NISCO greater production flexibility and enhanced responsiveness to the market demand.
“Thanks to their comprehensive technological know-how and profound experience, SMS Concast was and is the perfect partner for this project. The excellent cooperation between both project teams enabled us to achieve the specified product quality immediately,” says Zhu Ping, Vice General Manager at NISCO.
NISCO is a leading Chinese steel producer with approximately ten million tons of steel produced per annum.
SMS group is a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. It has some 14,000 employees who generate worldwide sales of more than EUR 2.9 billion. The sole owner of the holding company SMS GmbH is the Familie Weiss Foundation.
