STEEL GRIPS online

ERW tube welding line for Arvedi, Italy

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:23:40 +0200

A 12 ¾” ERW (Electric Resistance Welded) tube welding line for heavy wall thicknesses has been commissioned at Arvedi Tube Acciaio S.p.A. in Cremona, Italy.

Yichang Three Gorges, China, orders two continuous annealing lines

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:51:20 +0200

Yichang Three Gorges, China, ordered two continuous annealing lines. Both lines will process ultra-thin sheet, which will then be electroplated and used as packaging material.

BSG - 1st Chinese manufacturer of stretch-reduced welded tubes

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:42:24 +0200

China National Petroleum Corporation [CNPC] ordered a stretch reducing block and a rotating hot saw, which are the core of the new continuous production plant.

ThyssenKrupp Bausysteme GmbH, Germany, disposed of insulated door plant

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:46:07 +0200

ThyssenKrupp Bausysteme GmbH sold its manufacturing plant for insulated doors in Pansdorf, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, effective February 1, 2010. The plant mainly produces ...

Asian average stainless steel prices - latest forecasts

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 10:35:14 +0200

Asian stainless steel forecasts are little changed from December 2009. An anticipated hike in alloy surcharges for February 2010 will, almost certainly, result in ...

World stainless steel prices slip in January but upturn imminent

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:58:40 +0200

The stainless steel market appears to be at something of a crossroads, with raw material costs, end-user demand and the aims of the producers all having their separate influences. In the West, in particular, the post-recession pick-up in demand is ...

Two more direct reduction plants in the MENA region

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 12:03:47 +0200

After the successful startup of the 1,6 Mt/a Energiron DRI plant at Emirates Steel Industries (ESI) Minimill #1 in Abu Dhabi two more new DRI plants are being erected in the MENA region.

Nizhny Tagil, Russia, to increase caster capacity and product range

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 20:43:09 +0200

Russian steel producer Nizhny Tagil Iron & Steel Works (NTMK) placed an order to increase the casting capability of the existing two-strand beam-blank/bloom combi-caster CCM3.

Raw material costs push the developing markets´ average steel price higher

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:12:25 +0200

Trading activity in the Turkish market has remained downbeat. Local long product steelmakers have struggled to sell material at their cost of production either at home or in their export markets. Output levels are now more than likely to be ...

Influence of coking time on coke quality from non-recovery vibro-compacting coke ovens

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 20:19:23 +0200

Coke quality depends on the quality of coal or its blend, coking parameters and pre-carbonisation techniques, if any. JSW Steel has adopted vibro-compaction pre-carbonisation technique, along with non-recovery ovens, having a capacity to produce 1.2 million t/a of coke. Coking conditions are determined majorily by coking time and oven temperatures, etc. Coking time is the most important parameter of coking conditions and plays a significant role on coke quality. The coking conditions are determined, to a great extent, by the quality of coal blend used, especially the volatile matter (VM) and the coking properties. Plant scale trials were conducted by varying coking time on different coal blends to study its effect on the process and coke quality. The experiments at vibro-compacted non-recovery coke ovens revealed that coking time influences the coke quality and depends on the quality of the coal blend. The high temperature properties, coke reactivity index (CRI) and coke strength after reaction (CSR), improved with longer carbonisation time in case of coal blends with inferior coals in the blend.

World crude steel output decreases by -8.0% in 2009

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:40:03 +0200

Steel production declined in nearly all the major steel producing countries and regions including the EU, North America, South America and the CIS in 2009. However, Asia, in particular China and India, and the Middle East showed positive growth in 2009.

Northern European steel prices show modest upward trend

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 17:13:52 +0200

The Flat Products market got off to a slow start to 2010 in Northern Europe. Some suppliers report increasing numbers of enquiries and even sales, although this activity is perceived to be due to restocking rather than growing real demand. Some products, though, such as ...

Ukrainian Metallurgy: End-2009 annual review

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 14:15:44 +0200

According to the Ukrainian association of the metallurgical enterprises METALLURGPROM, Ukrainian crude steel production in 2009 declined (in comparison with 2008 levels of 37.1 mt) by up to 17.4% and reached ~29.8 mt. For the steel industry of the Ukraine, this is the lowest level of crude steel output since 2000.

Influence of operational parameters on the performance of the Corex reduction shaft

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:36:22 +0200

Smelting reduction (SR) processes were developed with the objective of eliminating the need for coke, since the good quality coking coal reserves are limited and depleting fast. The SR processes operate with coal to meet the thermal and reducing requirements. Corex is one of such SR processes which emerged as a commercially viable iron making technology. It consists of two reactors: the reduction shaft and the melter-gasifier. The reduced iron bearing material from the reduction shaft is charged into the melter-gasifier for melting. The performance of this process is thus highly dependent on the efficiency of the reduction shaft. The performance of the reduction shaft is measured by the degree of metallization of the direct-reduced iron (DRI) product. The metallization is dependent on operational parameters and on quality and type of the iron bearing material charged. Other than the quality of the iron bearing material, operational parameters also influence the performance of the shaft and the degree of metallization of the shaft product. ...

New developments in welding technology, profound base to enhance chances

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:01:33 +0200

Good mood dominated the 17th International Essen Welding Fair, thus delighting the 1015 exhibitors. Before the beginning of the exhibition which started on September 14th under the clouds of the worldwide economic crisis, many firms were still uncertain whether this year’s involvement would pay off. However, the number of visitors on the second and third days of the fair was already slightly above those of the preceding event in 2005. Upon completion, the organizer was able to announce around 6,0000 visitors and, thus, to more than match the level of 5,8000 from four years ago.

Influence of parent metal mechanical properties on those of the different ultra-high-strength steel electron beam welds

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 22:03:25 +0200

Several combinations of a maraging steel and a medium-alloy medium-C steel both in various conditions were joined by electron beam welding. In the as-welded condition, both, a strength minimum and a toughness maximum were observed. Post-weld aging resulted in increased strength and reduced toughness. The toughness of the welds between both steel grades was observed to lie inbetween that of the maraging steel and medium-alloy medium-C steel.

ArcelorMittal South Africa to upgrade electric arc furnace equipment

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:19:33 +0200

ArcelorMittal South Africa is to install a chemical energy package equipment at the company's Vanderbijlpark Works' three electric arc furnaces.

More positive outlook for EU mill steel prices

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 13:14:10 +0200

The EU market remained quiet two weeks into the New Year. Many companies took extended holidays because of the poor economic climate and the severe weather hitting several countries has also served to dampen activity. Domestic producers are looking to ...

First commercial ITmk3 plant begins production

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:08:13 +0200

The world's first commercial plant using the ITmk3 Process began production of iron nuggets in Hoyt Lakes, Minnesota, USA.

The steeluniversity Challenge 2009/2010 ready to launch

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 16:00:11 +0200

The fifth steeluniversity Challenge will begin at 12:00 GMT on Wednesday, 27 January 2010 and will run for 24 hours. The task is to make steel plate for a yellow goods (construction and agricultural equipment) application.

World steel statistics monthly commentary - December 2009

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:30:45 +0200

Crude steel production in the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association totalled 107 million tonnes in November 2009, 24% higher than in November 2008. However, the eleven months total was 1,090 million tonnes, 10.8% lower than the same period last year.

Hyundai Steel, South Korea, starts operation of its No. 1 blast furnace

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:43:05 +0200

Hyundai Steel, part of the Hyundai Automotive Group, held a furnace 'lighting' ceremony at its new integrated steel mill in Dangjin, South Korea, 123 kilometres southwest of Seoul, to start the operation of its first blast furnace.

Simulating the hot stamping process of high-strength 22MnB5: From hot stamping to crash-simulations

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:21:55 +0200

Going through several aspects of the virtual design chain of hot stamped components, the necessary and often critical points and problems related to the material characterisation and to the simulation of the hot forming process and of the crash behaviour are discussed. Then, the experimental results and simulations of hot stamping laboratory tests on two different geometries are shown and analysed in terms of thinning, temperature distribution, microstructure development and final hardness.

Hot forming - new potentials for innovative manufacturing

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 10:00:03 +0200

Hot forming has established itself as an important manufacturing technology for body-in-white (BIW) parts. The main advantage is the ultra-high strength of the parts combined with excellent accuracy after the forming step. Hence, adequate process control is indispensable to ensure appropriate part properties. Thermal imaging represents a suitable implement for process monitoring and the understanding of the various parameters influencing temperature behaviour. This device supplies qualitative indications of the thermal conditions with part or tool, especially for R&D activities. Further investigations take into account the part´s strength. A calculated process modification of the strength property class can be adapted to the part demands, and appropriate annealing conditions offer a huge number of feasible strength levels to the family of manganese boron steels. By changing the chemical analysis of the steel a further application for adapted component properties is possible. This causes an increased strength level in the press hardened parts. Thus, and by using these steel grades, it is possible to boost the weight reduction of the body-inwhite structure.

Karl-Ulrich Köhler to join Corus as new COO

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:20:35 +0200

Corus announced the appointment of Dr. Karl-Ulrich Köhler as its new Chief Operating Officer with effect from 1 February 2010. He succeeds Rauke Henstra, who held the position until his retirement last year.

Variation in surface residual stress of C-Mn rail with usage

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 10:23:19 +0200

With increasing service life, stresses occurring in rails show a transition from compressive to tensile nature in the gauge corner, accompanied by extensive gauge corner cracks. It is assumed that the presence of the tensile residual stresses causes the cracks to initiate and propagate. New rails, on the other hand, have tensile residual stresses in the head, generated during straightening. Rail failure during service is affected by many parameters, such as intrisic properties of rails, operational conditions and residual stresses developed before and during use. This investigation shows that residual stresses in the head centre transform from tensile to compressive during use, but there is a possibility that deep inside the head, tensile residual stresses remain which may cause fatigue failure. Residual stresses at the foot centre generally decrease with increasing GMT (gross metric ton).

World steel production in 2010 expected to be new record figure

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:38:08 +0200

The outlook for the global steel industry in 2010 is now looking very positive. In fact, analysts are forecasting a new record high output this year. There are several reasons for this bullish prediction.

Pretreatment of hot metal

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:29:14 +0200

In present times, the products of most of the iron making units are characterised by high silicon and phosphorus contents, due to poor raw material characteristics. Removal of these impurities increases the processing time at the converter and ladle treatment. Additionally, increasingly stringent quality requirements have heightened the demand for steels with very low levels of impurities, such as phosphorus, sulfur, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, and of non-metallic inclusions. To improve hot metal characteristics, several attempts to pretreat the hot metal have been made on various scales by steel plants with limited success. No full-scale hot-metal pretreatment has been proved successful.

With the aim to understand the hot metal refining mechanism and establish an economically viable process, JSW Steel, Vijayanagar works, has introduced India’s first hot metal pretreatment (HMPT) facility. The HMPT envisaged the removal of silicon and phosphorus separately by injection of reagents and fluxes in the transfer ladle in a twostep process. Desiliconisation was attempted by oxidising the hot metal along with added lime and sinter fines (iron oxide) to form a CaO-FeO-SiO2 slag, whereas dephosphorisation is carried out by lime, sinter fines and fluorspar.

Series of trials were made to optimise the addition and blowing pattern for the most economical treatment in the least possible time. Successful and continuous pretreatment of hot metal has resulted in significant improvement during primary steel making, and reduced the desiliconisation and dephosphorisation load on the converter.

Drop in 2009 world stainless steel production, third quarter recovery

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:14:30 +0200

Preliminary figures released today by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) show that world stainless steel production decreased by 15% in the first nine months of 2009 when compared to the same period of 2008.

EU average stainless steel prices - forecasts are little changed

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:53:19 +0200

Forecasts are little changed from November. Austenitic selling figures are expected to fall in the New Year due to a reduction in the alloy surcharges. Further cuts in basis numbers can not be ruled out due to ...

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (OJSC “MMK”) commissioned continuous slab caster No6

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:52:47 +0200

MMK commissioned the continuous slab casting machine No6 (CSCM No6) in the oxygen-converter shop. This marks a successive stage of the plate mill 5000 complex development in order to produce plates for the wide-diameter pipe production.

Four continuous slab casters put into operation at Zhangjiagang Rong Sheng, China

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:10:47 +0200

Zhangjiagang Rong Sheng Co. Ltd. (ZRS), a Chinese steel producer, put into operation four continuous slab casters comprising a total of seven strands within just four weeks.

Automotive recycling in Russia, December 2009

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:02:02 +0200

Further to recent Government rulings, Russia will soon adopt a used car recycling programme, similar to the one adopted in a number of EU countries such as Germany and UK in 2009. The recycling project - developed by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation - will commence in Russia from January 1, 2010.

New minimill for Deacero, Mexico

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 07:09:09 +0200

Deacero, the largest Mexican steel producer, ordered a new minimill for the production of deformed bars, smooth and deformed wire rod. The new production unit will be built at Saltillo's city near Monterrey facilities.

Steel price recovery in 2010 driven by higher input costs

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 15:41:17 +0200

Despite a flood of announcements from the US mills scheduling increases for the first quarter 2010, during recent negotiations, some suppliers have lifted strip mill product values, others have lowered them and a number have left them unchanged. It appears that producers are looking to ...

China´s acceleration highlights slow recovery elsewhere

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:32:34 +0200

This year has been one of contrasts in the steel industry. China has produced a lot more steel than in the past, whilst the rest of the world´s production has been rapidly declining ...

JFE Steel to blow in No.3 blast furnace at West Japan Works (Kurashiki)

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:43:47 +0200

JFE Steel Corporation’s No.3 blast furnace at the company’s West Japan Works (Kurashiki), will be blown in for a fourth campaign beginning in mid-February 2010.

Mixed sentiment for steel prices in the developing nations

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:31:04 +0200

Purchasing activity in the Turkish market has been disrupted by weak seasonal demand as well as a religious festival. A shortage of active buyers has deterred long product steelmakers from passing on their higher raw material costs but this strategy may ...

China´s growth in stainless steel supply will hit EU mill output

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:26:26 +0200

European producers are likely to be the main victims of the growing global overcapacity for stainless steel production. Prior to the expansion of indigenous stainless steelmaking in some of the emerging countries, the EU was the main supplier of stainless ...

Some aspects of blowhole formation in low-silicon steels

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 12:26:36 +0200

Low-silicon steel grades have many benefits like a larger yield because of smaller shrinkage, or lower cost because of a small ferroalloy addition. Also they have good mechanical properties for pipe production. However, they require a strict control of the oxygen level in a melt. Blowhole formation is one of the most important problems during the rolling of such steels.

The influence of metal chemistry and deoxidation practice on blowhole formation was performed at plant conditions at the Belorussian Steel Works. The maximum blowhole sizes were measured on wires with diameters between 5.5 and 6.5 mm, produced from low-silicon steel of different compositions and deoxidizer amounts. The major steel elements mass contents range between 0.06 and 0,12 % for carbon and 0.08 and 0.21 % for Si. Aluminium was used as an additional deoxidizer to decrease the oxygen activity after electric arc furnace (EAF) tapping. The equilibria between element-deoxidizers such as Mn, C, Al, Si and oxygen during the ladle treatment were studied by comparison of the measured oxygen activity with the calculated values.

It was found that the deviation from optimal values of the aluminium mass, used for deoxidation, is responsible for critical blowhole formation. A linear dependence between oxygen activity and yield of aluminium was discovered. This dependence was used for more precise calculations of the aluminium mass required for steel deoxidation. As a result, a decrease in critical blowhole appearance was achieved.

Dillinger Hütte's 325th birthday

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:25:40 +0200

2010 is a special year for Dillinger Hütte. It is a year that marks an out-of-the-ordinary birthday: 325 years since the "birth" of the company.

Coil handling system for U.S. long product manufacturer Sterling Steel

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 14:08:18 +0200

Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, Carthage, Missouri, USA, ordered a coil handling system for a wire rod mill at its subsidiary, Sterling Steel LLC in Illinois.

November 2009 crude steel production figures

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:50:42 +0200

World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the World Steel Association (worldsteel) was 107.5 million metric tons (mmt) in November 2009.

European steel industry disappointed by Copenhagen results

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:31:24 +0200

“The Copenhagen deal is a disappointment. We had hoped that an agreement in Copenhagen would have resulted in a global level playing field between industrial competitors worldwide” ...

Weak demand further depresses European steel prices

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:48:02 +0200

Prices for hot rolled and cold rolled coil fell slightly in northern Europe in this month. Seasonal factors exacerbated the already depressed market. End-user activity typically slows around the Christmas and New Year holidays and many market participants strive to achieve low inventory targets ...

EU flat products steel price drops for third straight month

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:30:21 +0200

Although we have noted some minor downward corrections for flat products over the last month, market prices are starting to stabilise in most parts of the EU. The import threat from third country suppliers appears to have ...

Zoom into steel (video)

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:38:40 +0200

One of the most entertaining science video clips. The narrator describes the appearance of the microstructure of steel with ever increasing magnification. From macroscopic to atom layer.

Iron ore price rises of near 20 % predicted next year

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:04:39 +0200

Any settlements reached for the 2010 iron ore contracts are likely to be at a figure approaching 20 percent above the level agreed by many Asian and European steel mills in 2009. There are several factors which lead us to this conclusion ...

EU needs to examine BHP, Rio iron ore JV closely

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:39:46 +0200

The World Steel Association (worldsteel) calls for competition authorities to thoroughly examine the impact of the proposed joint venture (JV) between Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

North American carbon steel prices - latest forecasts

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 12:06:28 +0200

The North American Average Flat Products transaction value decreased by over $US30 per tonne in November, reversing the previous upward price trend. Cold rolled and coated selling figures ..