LONG PRODUCTS BULLETIN - SMS Meer GmbH

Joining forces: Experts from SMS and Tung Ho Steel.
10 Newsletter 1/2011
Minimills
Every year 72,000 t less carbon dioxide (CO 2)
Tung Ho Steel, Taiwan:
Minimill sets new standards
for rebars
In mid-2010, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corpora-
tion, Taiwan, has successfully taken a minimill for
rebars into operation which has been built by
SMS Meer and SMS Concast. What is so special is
that the new minimill in Taoyuan near Taipei can
be operated without a conventional reheating
furnace. Instead, an inductive heating plant from
SMS Elotherm has been integrated.
Consequently, Tung Ho saves energy and the environment is less
polluted, since 72,000 t less carbon dioxide (CO2) are produced.
And the operational costs are also substantially lower.
The works bays.
Minimal energy consumption. For the generation of energy, Taiwan
depends almost 100 percent on oil and gas imported from abroad.
The country generates high emissions of greenhouse gases, and as a
result of this, the government is making efforts to reduce energy consumption
and the emission rate. In response to these efforts, we
have materialized an innovative approach for the new minimill of
Tung Ho in order to reach a minimum energy consumption.
Reheating furnace dispensed with. The new plant optimally implements
the basic minimill concept: short ways and a direct linkage
of the rolling mill to the steel plant. The hot billets running out
of the continuous caster (with a capacity of 40 to 45 t/h per strand)
are immediately brought to a uniform temperature in the inductive
heating plant. Then, the billets run directly into the rebar
rolling mill. In this way, a gas- or oil-fired reheating furnace upstream
of the rolling mill could be dispensed with. Under certain
conditions, even an inductive heating is not required since the billets
are shaped in such a way that they hardly lose any heat during
the subsequent production process.