ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih’s Kryvyi Rih Mining and Metallurgical Plant (AMKR, Dnipro region) has mastered the production of a new type of billets with a size of 160×160 mm in the continuous casting department of its converter shop to increase exports.
As reported in the corporate newspaper Metallurg, until recently, the department’s product mix was limited to 130×130 and 150×150 mm square billets. The new product was launched due to its economic advantages and export potential, as the 160×160 mm size is used by rolling mills in many countries.
The project was successfully implemented thanks to careful calculations, equipment modernization and well-coordinated teamwork. These products will enable the production of heavier rebar coils, which will reduce transportation costs and increase the company’s competitiveness.
The company explains that VBRS products are steel billets used in rolling mills to make rebar, wire rod, angles and other rolled products. And the billets themselves are in demand on the market.
“Rebar in coils is currently in demand on global markets. Our DS 250-4 mill produces bobbins in coils up to 2 tons. And 30 such coils can be placed in a railroad car, i.e. 60 tons. If we increase the weight of the coils, we can transport up to 67 tons of products in a railroad car. This means that we can save a lot of money on transportation, which is especially important given that transportation prices are rising. That’s why we needed more massive billets to produce heavier coils,” said Igor Smolev, Deputy Director of the Rolling Department for Technology and Quality.
In turn, Dmitry Terekhov, Director of the Iron and Steel Production Department, said that the second good reason to start manufacturing new products was that many rolling mills in the world, in particular in Germany and Poland, use 160×160 mm billets, so this is a very promising product right now.
“Together with the technical department, we explored the possibilities of producing the billets in demand and found that it was possible, despite the fact that our continuous casting machines (CCMs) were not designed for this. We decided to use CCM-1 because it produced only 150 mm squares, while the first and second machines produce both 150 mm and 130 mm. The first machine is also used for closed jet casting, so it is on this machine that we produce the vast majority of billets from high value-added steel grades (high-alloy, low-carbon, etc.),” Terekhov stated.
“ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih is the largest producer of rolled steel in Ukraine. It specializes in long products, including rebar and wire rod. The company has a full production cycle and its production capacities are designed to produce over 6 million tons of steel, over 5 million tons of rolled products and over 5.5 million tons of pig iron annually.
ArcelorMittal owns the largest mining and metallurgical plant in Ukraine, ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih, and a number of small companies, including ArcelorMittal Berislav.
