THE ECHO - Ferrostaal

Vietnam is on the road to becoming an industrial nation. The
demand for steel is growing all the time due to the emerging industry
and the countless infrastructure projects in the country. In the last
ten years, demand for steel in Vietnam has risen by an average of
20 percent per year. And the current annual demand of 6 million
tons is set to rise to approximately 15 million tons by 2015. In 2005,
steel imports amounted to 5.5 million tons, equalling more than
90 percent. Vietnam intends to reduce its heavy dependency on
imports, in particular of warm-rolled and cold-rolled flat products,
by securing extensive new investments in the country.
Vinashin’s new mill will produce heavy plate with a maximum
width of 3 m, maximum length of 18 m, and a strength of 5 to 50 mm.
The raw material will be imported steel slabs. The steel
construction halls are approximately 600 m long. Since the entire
area on which they are being built is water-logged because it was
reclaimed from the sea, the foundations of the halls and the
heavy machinery had to be mounted on concrete piles. The foundations
and halls are to be constructed by Vietnamese companies,
THE ECHO 1/2006 37
VINASHIN BUILDS A NEW PLATE MILL IN VIETNAM
BUILDING SHIPS WITH THEIR OWN STEEL
The Vietnamese state-owned shipbuilding group Vinashin will in future be able to produce the heavy plate it requires to build ships.
In the Quang Ninh province near the port of Cai Lan in northern Vietnam, Vinashin is constructing a new hot-rolling mill with an initial
annual capacity of 350,000 tons. MAN Ferrostaal is responsible for engineering and project management.
while the rolling mill machinery will be supplied by Chinese
manufacturers.
ON-SITE EXPERTS
MAN Ferrostaal will work with a large team of on-site experts to
supervise and coordinate the engineering. The team will be reinforced
by Vietnamese engineers and will receive support from the
MAN Ferrostaal office in Hanoi.
A steel manufacturing plant is being constructed at the same time
right next to the rolling mill. The production lines originated in
Germany and were dismantled and shipped by order of MAN
Ferrostaal in the summer of 2005. MAN Ferrostaal will supervise
their re-assembly in Vietnam.
Wilhelm Bruckmann
The first concrete piles
were driven into the soil
in January 2006.
The heart of the rolling mill:
the heavy plate mill stand.