The Kametstal plant, part of the Metinvest mining and metallurgical group (Kamensk, Dnipropetrovsk region), has significantly increased its production of continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology due to increased demand.
According to the company, one of the current trends in the metal market is increased demand for continuously cast steel billets using the stop casting technology.
“Thanks to systematic measures, the team at Kametstal’s converter shop exceeded its initial targets for this year and achieved a monthly production of 15,000 tons of high-quality billets at the continuous casting machine (CCM-1), which is twice as much as last year’s monthly production volumes,” the press release states.
At the same time, it is noted that the development and improvement of steel casting technology using stop mechanisms on the continuous casting machine (CCM) No. 1 remains in the focus of the company’s specialists, as it allows them to obtain metal with higher requirements for chemical composition and macrostructure, which yields higher profits than conventional billets. One of the primary goals set by the steelmakers is to increase the production of billets using this technology, and they are persistently pursuing this goal. This year, 58,433 thousand tons of high-quality billets have already been cast on the first machine, thus exceeding the annual production volume for 2024 by more than 5 thousand tons in eight months.
“Among the priority measures for achieving ambitious goals is the development and improvement of the parameters for the automatic start of the machine’s streams during stop casting, which has a positive effect on the quality and productivity of casting by minimizing the human factor in the process. While at the beginning of 2025, successful starts of the continuous casting machine in “Auto Start” mode accounted for almost 80%, today, technologists are already performing more than 90% of successful starts without switching to manual mode,” the plant emphasizes.
Also this year, as part of the program to upgrade the main steelmaking equipment, an investment project was implemented – during the first stage of reconstruction at continuous casting machine No. 1, frequency converters and cable and wire products were replaced, and the software was updated. As a result, the operation of the pulling stoves has improved, and thus the smoothness of pouring and the stability of launches.
After the implementation of this investment project, the first machine achieved a record production of high-quality hot-rolled coils in July – 16,159 thousand tons, while last year the maximum monthly production of such products was 8,256 thousand tons.
An important vector is the increase in the seriality of melts during stop casting of steel. Additional technological measures have made it possible to achieve an average seriality of almost six melts this year, while the average seriality in 2024 was 5.3 melts.
As reported, Metinvest will invest more than UAH 2.5 billion in the modernization of Kametstal in 2025.
Kametstal is part of the Metinvest Group.
