New Danieli steel meltshop at SeAH Besteel, Korea
In October 2005 SeAH Besteel, the main supplier of special steel materials for the automobile industry in Korea, contracted Danieli Centro Met for the supply of a new 80-t EAF and a new bloom caster, which will further increase Kunsan special steel plant’s current productivity.

This additional order strengthens the long relationship between SeAH Besteel and Danieli, established with the previous expansion steps of the same steelmaking plant.

This included the installation of a 3-strand billet caster (2001), a 2-strand large-size bloom caster (started up in September 2005) and the upgrade of EAF #1 and #2.

The new order includes an 80-t Danarc EAF, a new 16.5-m-radius 2-strand FastCast bloom caster and a new automation system extended to the existing LF-VD station.

The new EAF will be equipped by the most advanced technological packages such as high-performance Modules and Hi-Reg Plus electrode-control system, which already operate successfully at the previously upgraded EAF #1 and #2.

The new conticaster will produce 390x510-mm blooms mostly in medium alloy and high-carbon steels. Similar to the one recently started up, it will feature all latest Danieli conticasting technology, such as hydraulic oscillation, Dynamic SOFT Reduction application by 10 withdrawal units for each strand, and a Quench Box system for direct hot charging of blooms. Advanced mould design, and strand and final EMS will as well contribute to enhance final product quality.

Danieli Automation will provide a Level 1 and 2 automation system for the new equipment, along with the complete revamping for the existing automation system to be installed on the LF-VD plant.

The new equipment will be started up in Q3, 2006.

  Third 150-t DC EAF restarts operation at Essar Steel, India
In mid October 2005, a third 150-t DC Electric Arc Furnace restarted operation at Essar Steel’s Hazira works, to full Customer satisfaction, after major upgrade carried out by Danieli Centro Met aimed at increasing plant productivity.

Within the frame of the order awarded to Danieli in 2003 two other similar units underwent the same modification and restarted successfully in December 2004 and May 2005, respectively.

The EAF upgrades included installation of the latest generation multi-purpose O₂/C injection units; shell enlargement for heat size increase to 155 t; pneumatic-type lime injection; automatic temperature control and sampling; and upgrading of the fume-extraction system.

An advanced Level 2 automation system (also in charge of the ladle furnace operation) was part of the upgrade, too.
As a confirmation of the excellent results obtained with the firs three upgraded EAFs, Danieli has been recently awarded with an order for modification of a fourth 150-t EAF.

 New Danieli billet inspection and conditioning plant for NTS Steel, Thailand
NTS Steel (member of the Millennium Steel Group) has recently awarded Danieli Centro Maskin (DCMK) the order for upgrading its Chonburi plant with the installation of a new inspection and conditioning plant for processing 130x130 to 160x160 mm, 6 to 12-m-long engineering steel billets.

The inspection facilities will have a capacity of over 0.5 Mtpy, while the conditioning plant, based on a Danieli Centro Maskin grinding machine in the first stage, will be suitable for processing more than 120,000 tpy of billets with the possibility of doubling output by installation of a second grinder.

The grinding machine, based on the latest Hi-GRIND technology (the digital evolution of the previous analogical PowCo system), will ensure the best surface quality.

The grinder will be equipped with a 160-kW AC motor and will have the flexibility to use different sizes of grinding wheels.

The high standardisation of all components and the well proven process utilised in this case, will allow Danieli to deliver all the equipment in not more than 8 months while the start of production is expected by the end of summer 2006.

The electrical equipment and the automation system will be supplied by Danieli Automation.

 New Danieli 400,000-tpy quality bar mill at Stomana Industry, Bulgaria
Stomana Industry SA, the leading steel manufacturer in Bulgaria (part of the Greek group Sidenor), will install a new Danieli bar mill at its Pernik steel works, with the aim of expanding production capacity and improving product quality.

At an initial stage the mill will produce 400,000-tpy of 16 to 120-mm quality plain rounds and 8 to 40-mm deformed bars using the 4-strand slit-rolling technology for the smaller rebar sizes. Steel grades will range from low and medium carbon to cold-heading and free-cutting steel qualities.

The mill, fed by a 120-tph Danieli Centro Combustion walking beam reheating furnace, will be composed of 18 SHS stands in continuous with quick changing facilities, QTB system for on-line quenching of rebars, rake-type cooling bed and associated finishing facilities for straight bars.

The advanced automation system and electrics will be supplied by Danieli Automation.
In future the mill will be upgraded and completed to increase productivity and to extend the range to sections, bar-in-coils, wire rod and larger-size round bars of up to 180-mm-dia.

The new mill will be fed with billets and blooms up to 250x300 mm coming from the 150-tph, four-strand FastCast Danieli conticaster, in operation at the same works since 2002. Startup of the new mill is scheduled by the end of 2006.

 New 0.6-Mtpy Danieli SBQ mill at Hunan Valin Xiangtan, P.R. of China
The new 120-tph mill, designed for low temperature rolling of 16 to 55-mm straight and coiled bars and hexagons for automotive and mechanical manufacturing purposes, will be made up of 16 housingless H - V stands, on-line water cooling boxes for LTR rolling and a 5-passKocks/Danieli RSB Reducing and Sizing Block.

The RSB, thanks to its 3-roll technology and a wide free-size rolling capability, combines the benefits of superior product quality with higher mill efficiency at lower operating costs.

State-of-the-art finishing outlets for bars and coils fitted with on-line heat treatment facilities will grant production of superior quality finished products.

The straight bars finishing line will include automatic cooling bed, cut-to-length, bundling and collecting facilities.
The coiling line, designed for production of 2-t coils, will be made up of two rotary-plate Garret coilers, coil-handling system, walking beam controlled-cooling conveyor, and coil compacting, tying and collecting facilities.

Steel grades will range from quality carbon to alloy steels, including cold-heading, spring and free-cutting qualities.
Startup is scheduled for the beginning of year 2007.
This mill adds another reference to the scorecard of Danieli SBQ and special steel mills in China, which already includes several plants in operation, close to startup, or under supply. The most significant of these are: Baosteel Shanghai No. 5 bar and rod mill, Xinjiang Bay and two Qingdao special steel wire rod mills, Chengde and Shijiazhuang SBQ mills, Tianjin Tiangang twin bar mills and the two Jiangyin Xing Cheng special steel mills, presently under construction.

 New Danieli Spooler line started up at Corrugados Azpeitia, Spain
Corrugados Azpeitia SL (Alfonso Gallardo Group) has added a new Danieli Spooler line to the existing bar mill in Azpeitia.

The new line, which delivered its first spooled coils successfully on November 3^rd 2005, enables the company to supply the market with 8 to 32-mm-dia rebars, twist-free-wound at speeds of up to 35-mps into 1.8-t ultra-compact high-quality spooled coils.at output rates of 110 tph.

Spooling technology, thanks to twist-free winding of hot-rolled rebars, grants a unique, cobble-free uncoiling capability that makes traditional off-line cold decoiling, stretching and rewinding unnecessary, with significant savings in transformation costs. Coil handling, storage and transportation are also highly benefited.

This way new interesting niches can be opened in the present bar-in-coil market.
Danieli Automation has supplied the electric and automation systems for the new line.
Danieli Spooling system has introduced a radical change in the bar-in-coil production technology. Danieli scorecard presently includes 28 Spooler units supplied or under supply, worldwide.

 Danieli bar finishing line inaugurated at Gerdau Piratini, Brazil
A new automatic bar straightening, inspection and conditioning line, supplied by Danieli Centro Maskin (DCMK), has been started up at the Gerdau Aços Especiais Piratini specialty steel plant in Charqueadas (RS)

The line, made up of an RLL 160 two-roll straightener plus chamfering, cutting and handling equipment, was officially inaugurated in a ceremony held on September 21^st 2005, in the presence of local authorities.

The line has a 160,000-tpy nominal productivity of (based on a two daily shifts) and is designed to process 50 to 105-mm-dia, 3 to 12-m long bars in engineering steels with up to 1100 N/mm² yield strength, at max speeds of 70 mpm.

Two similar DCMK plants successfully operate at Aços Finos Piratini plant since 1997 and 1998, respectively.

 Danieli special steel bar finishing line for Cogne, Italy

Cogne Acciai Speciali has contracted Danieli for the supply of a new state-of-the-art finishing line for its special steel bar mill, to maximize plant efficiency, material yield and final product quality.

The new line will process stainless steel bars in sizes ranging from 18 to 105-mm-dia rounds and equivalent squares and hexagons, collected in up to 3-t regular bundles, at rates of up to 50 tph.

The supply will include a new 42-m-long rake-type cooling bed with feeding and delivery tables, cut-to-length, bundling and collecting facilities plus associated electricals and automation system.

A dedicated project execution schedule will enable installation of the new facilities with a very limited plant outage, and consequent minimized loss of production.

Plant restart after modification is scheduled for end August 2006

Danieli conticaster for special steel bloom at Benxi, P.R. China
Bengang Steel Plates Co. Ltd. (part of Benxi Iron & Steel Group) has contracted Danieli for the supply of a new large bloom caster for quality and special steel grades.

The 4-strand, 14-m radius conticaster will have an 800,000-tpy designed capacity of 350x470 mm blooms in different demanding steel grades including automotive, gear, engineering, spring and bearing qualities.

Individual strand productivity values ranging from 40 tph up to 60 tph are expected, depending on steel grade and ladle sequence index.

Ladle shroud, tundish stopper rod device associated with submerged nozzle and with mould powder automatic feeding system will allow for a complete protection of liquid steel stream, thus reducing the oxygen pick-up and consequently the non-metallic inclusion content.

The curved copper plate mould and relevant water cooling system design is based on an advanced concept to ensure a very efficient and consistent heat removal.

Danieli Rotelec mould electromagnetic stirrer is envisaged, to achieve high sub-surface and internal quality of the cast product.

Hydraulic mould oscillation will further improve the surface quality of the cast blooms.
Mechanical soft reduction at the unbending and straightening rollers will be applied for high carbon steels.
Complete process control with Level 2 automation is secured, including the finite elements dynamic solidification model, necessary to get the best use of the mechanical soft reduction.

Startup of the new caster is scheduled for the end of 2006.

Danieli special steel caster for large-size blooms started up at SeAH Besteel, Korea
On September 5^th 2005, a new conticaster for large-size special steel blooms started operation at the SeAH Besteel Co. steelmaking shop in Kunsan, excellently performing from the start.

This is the result of the complete reconstruction of an existing two-strand bloom caster that transformed it into a new state-of-the-art modern machine, featuring all latest Danieli technological packages such as hydraulic oscillation, dynamic soft reduction and surface quenching system for blooms direct hot charge. Machine re-construction also included the latest-generation tundish design, new moulds, mould stirrers, new arrangement of secondary cooling and new straightening units.

The new caster has enabled to enlarge the cast size from previous 370x480 mm to present 390x510 mm blooms, mostly in medium alloy and high carbon steels, at higher output rates and with better cast bloom internal and surface quality.

Danieli Automation has supplied a new complete Level 1 and 2 automation system.

Mega-order for Danieli Spooler plants at Celsa Group in UK, Spain and Poland
After the success of the Danieli Spooler plant in operation at its Nervacero SA, Vizcaya plant in Spain, Celsa has reconfirmed its confidence in Danieli by awarding the orders for another three high-capacity Spooler lines to be installed at its Cardiff (UK), Castellbisbal (Spain) and Huta Ostrowiec (Poland) bar mills.

When in operation at late 2006/early 2007 these three new lines, together with the Nervacero Spooler plant, will make Celsa Group the largest producer of spooled coils in the world, with a designed overall production capacity of approximately 2 Mtpy, depending on production mix and market demand.

More specifically, the new Celsa Spooler lines will all be designed for production of 8 to 32-mm-dia rebars at maximum rated outputs of 180 tph (160 tph for the UK plant).

Coil weight will be 2.9-t for the Castellbisbal and for the Huta Ostrowiec plants, while the Cardiff line will produce 2.2-t spooled coils. The equipment is anyhow designed for up to 3.5-t coil weight.

The patented Danieli Spooler system has brought-in a real revolution in bar-in-coil production, enabling supply of high-quality ultra-compact heavy weight coils made up of twist-free wound hot-rolled round and deformed bars. Featuring cobble-free uncoiling capability, spooled coils can be directly used for direct feeding of the downstream lines in the cold processing plants, without any intermediate off-line operation (i.e.: decoiling, stretching and cold rewinding) with significant benefits in the direct production costs and in coil handling, transport and storage.

Significantly, the present Danieli scorecard includes a total of 28 Spooling units (16 of which for the Celsa Group) supplied or under supply for 12 different Customers, worldwide. This fact, together with the excellent results obtained in the plants already in operation, reconfirms Danieli as the undisputed leader for this innovative technology.

Danieli Spooler line technology at Alphasteel, UK
Alphasteel Ltd will become the 12^th user worldwide for this innovative bar-in-coil technology, developed and patented by Danieli.

The recent order foresees the addition of a new Spooler line to the Newport high-speed compact bar mill supplied by Danieli in the late ‘80s.

The new line will enable production of 8 to 20-mm-dia rebars twist-free wound at speeds of up to 31 mps into high-quality ultra-compact 1.8-t spooled coils, at rates of 70 tph.

Spooled coils unique cobble-free uncoiling capability will enable their use for direct feeding of the subsequent cold processing lines without any intermediate off-line operation (i.e. decoiling, stretching and cold rewinding) with significant production cost savings. Coil handling, transport and storage will also be highly benefited.

Danieli Automation will supply electricals and automation system for the line.
Startup will take place at beginning of year 2007.

Danieli to upgrade Burbach wire rod mill at Saarstahl, Germany
Upgrading of the multi-strand mill will involve the transformation of the existing 4-strand pre-finishing mill into four independent single-strand, twist-free / tension-free pre-finishing rolling lines with fast program changing system.

Each new line will be made up of four ESS cantilever stands in H-V sequence, a two-pass pre-finishing Miniblock and auxiliary equipment. The ESS stands will be equipped with Sandwich system for quick and simultaneous replacement of rolling rings and guides. All prefinishing units are adjustable under load and are equipped with axial roll ring clamping system.

The new arrangement will enable proper feeding of the existing finishing blocks with maximized mill’s efficiency and plant availability.

Equipment erection is also included in the Danieli scope of supply.
Danieli long experience in revamping of existing plants will enable to optimize the site activities schedule for minimizing the plant stoppage to 30 days.

The 4-strand Burbach wire rod mill produces approximately 1.1-Mtpy of 5.0 to 15.0-mm-dia low, medium and high carbon wire rod, including steel cord, PC, welding wire, bearing, cold heading and free cutting steels in coils weighing 1000 to 3,000 kg.

Start up of the modified plant is foreseen for early 2007.

Danieli EWR^® billet welding lines at Al Ittefaq Steel, Saudi Arabia
Danieli will supply new EWR^® Endless Welding Rolling lines to Al Ittefaq Steel rolling mills in  Damman and Jeddah, for on-line automatic welding of 150-mm-billets at rates of 75 tph and 120 tph, respectively.

Through on-line automatic head-to-tail flash welding of billets at the delivery side of the reheating furnace, the EWR^® system enables endless-rolling operation at the mill, significantly benefiting plant productivity, efficiency, material yield and production costs.

This order will bring to three the EWR^® lines in Saudi Arabia and enlarges the Danieli scorecard list to a total of 16 units supplied or under supply worldwide since 1997, thus reconfirming the undisputed leadership in this field.

Startup of the new facilities is scheduled for early 2007.

New Danieli wire rod mill at Diler Demir Çeljk, Turkey
A Danieli Morgårdshammar high-speed wire rod mill will be installed at the 1.2-Mtpy steel complex in Gebze, where a Danieli 6-strand high-speed conticaster successfully operates since year 2000.

The new state-of-the art mill will have a capacity of 400,000-tpy of quality steel wire rod, with a range covering 5.5 to 18-mm-dia plain and 6 to 16-mm-dia deformed wire rod in 2.3-t coils with provision for future extension up to 3.0-t coil weight.

Steel grades are LC, MC, HC and alloy qualities for a wide range of applications including mechanical engineering, drawing, cold heading, spring, bearing and tyre cord.

The single-strand wire rod mill will be fed by a 100-tph Danieli Centro Combustion walking beam reheating furnace and will be basically made up of an 18-stand roughing/intermediate mill on SHS stands plus a 10-pass DWB finishing block for wire rod finishing rolling at production speed of 105 mps.

Provision is made for future expansion to straight bars production.

The advanced Lev 2 automation system and all electrics will be from Danieli Automation.

Plant start up is scheduled for Spring 2007.

New Danieli automatic bar finishing line at Gerdau Riograndense, Brazil
The order for the upgrade of the rolling mill for bars and light sections was awarded to Danieli Morgårdshammar in August 2005.

According to the agreements reached, the existing cooling bed will be extended and completed with installation of new water cooling system, layer forming and regular extraction system and roller table for smooth feeding the downstream new finishing facilities.

A new CLS-type unit, made up of a 10-roll multi-strand start-stop straightener and stationary cold shear, will be installed at delivery side of the enlarged cooling bed (at the opposite side of the existing cut-to-length facilities), for on-line automatic straightening and cutting-to-length of light sections and bars.

A new 18-m-long single-head magnetic stacker will enable regular stacking and bundling of finished products into 1-t stacks or bundles, automatically tied and collected.

Danieli Automation will supply electricals and automation system.
The new finishing facilities are designed for processing 25 to 75-mm flats bars, 20 to 65-mm angles, 20-mm tees, 12 to 40-mm rounds and equivalent squares at rates of up to 60 tph.

Startup of the upgraded plant is scheduled for Autumn 2006.
This will be the third plant of this type supplied by Danieli to the Gerdau Group for its plants in Brazil, after the one in operation at Cosigua L3 mill and the other being constructed for the Cosigua L1 mill.

 New Danieli rebar finishing line at Siderurgica Añon, Spain
In September 2005, Siderurgica Añon awarded Danieli Morgårdshammar the order for a new straight bars finishing line for its rolling mil located in La Coruña.

The new line will enable production of 16 to 32-mm-dia rebars into 1.2 to 3.6-t regular bar bundles, at rates of 90 tph.

The supply will also include a QTB system for on-line quenching and self-tempering of rebars.
Danieli Automation will supply the electricals and automation system for the new line.
Startup is scheduled for autumn 2006.