TAEWOONG successfully casts 1,000 millimeter round bloom on continuous casting machine from SMS Concast

The new three-strand continuous casting machine at TAEWOONG, South Korea, is designed for an annual capacity of 800,000 tons per year. With a casting radius of 18 meters the SMS Concast caster is able to cast round blooms in diameters from 310 up to 1,000 millimeters. This marks a historical milestone in steel production technology, as it is the first caster in the world producing 1,000 millimeter blooms in a bent continuous casting process.

Facing ever changing demands in the market, TAEWOONG decided in favor of a continuous caster from SMS Concast, a company of the SMS group, which excels in terms of flexibility. The new machine is able to cast different sizes simultaneously in steel grades ranging from carbon and tool steels through stainless up to special alloy steels.

Rounds of 410, 600 and 800 millimeters in diameter were already successfully cast in October and November 2016, followed by the first cast of the 1,000 millimeter diameter round most recently in January 2017 – which is a world record.

“This steelmaking plant project is one of our company’s long-cherished ambitions in 20 years,” states Yongdo Huh, Chairman/Founder of TAEWOONG Co., Ltd. “We are proud to be the first in the world able to cast 1,000 millimeter round blooms on a bent continuous casting machine,” he adds.

The SMS group is a group of companies internationally active in plant construction and mechanical engineering for the steel and nonferrous metals industry. Its 14,000 employees generate sales of over EUR 3.3 bn.