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Rautaruukki to modernise Raahe blast furnaces
Apr 24, 2009
Rautaruukki decided to modernise the two blast furnaces at its Raahe Works, Finland, one by one during the next two years. In parallel, blast furnace 1, which was shut down in December 2008, will be restarted to compensate for the lost output thus safeguarding uninterrupted customer deliveries.
"The upcoming blast furnace modernisation and plans to bring it forward call for reserve stocks to be built up to safeguard deliveries. Furthermore, restarting the blast furnace is justified from the slab stock management point of view so that we can ensure customer deliveries in the near future," Olavi Huhtala, President of Ruukki Metals told STEEL GRIPS.
Blast furnace 1 went on stream in 1964 and was lately overhauled 1995. BF 2 started production in 1975 and was subjected to its last upgrade in 1996.
Refurbishment of blast furnace (BF) 1 is scheduled to begin in April 2010, and, depending on the progress of this project, overhauling BF 2 may be tackled the same year. Both blast furnaces will be shut down in turn for around two months during modernisation.
In this regard, Rautaruukki will switch over to employing only iron-ore pellet feed as raw material in the iron-making process. Accordingly, pellet conveyor systems, receiving hoppers and a briquetting plant for the agglomeration of dusts and other circulating materials will be built. The sintering plant currently in use will be closed by the end of 2011. Investments in modernising the blast furnaces and changing the feedstock base total around 220 million Euro.
This update of Rahe�s ironmaking section also includes ecofriendly investment of some 60 million Euro aiming at, e.g., the reduction of adverse environmental impact and of energy consumption. More efficient filter systems will be installed and hot water systems will be converted to cold water. Together with the shut-down of the sintering plant this will gain noticeable decrease in emissions, particularly of dust, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide.
"This investment will enable us to safeguard the continuity of our steel production far into the future. The investment will also have a major regional impact on employment, since the domestic purchases will account for almost 80 % of the total investments. Domestic purchase includes design and project management, structural work, equipment, workshop fabrication and installation work," Sakari Tamminen, President & CEO of Rautaruukki Corp. told STEEL GRIPS.
In addition, make sure to read these articles:
Rautaruukki to modernise Raahe blast furnaces
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Rautaruukki to discontinue the production of spiral-welded line pipes
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