Gerdau Special Steel North America announced an additional $40.4 million capital investment at its Monroe, Mich., special bar quality (SBQ) mill. This final phase of the project will include upgrades to the rolling mill, including a new bundler table, bundler area and the installation of a third saw. Including these rolling-mill upgrades, Gerdau has invested nearly $400 million over the past decade to transform the Monroe mill into a world-class SBQ production facility. This phased investment plan has involved several projects, including installation of a new continuous caster; a new twin-tank vacuum degasser; a new walking-beam reheat furnace; a new electric-arc furnace (EAF) transformer; EAF control and mechanical upgrades; and a new twin-ladle furnace and material-handling system.

Megasider Zaragoza S.A.U., part of the Megasa Group, placed an order with SMS group for a merchant bar mill equipped with environmentally friendly heating technology. It will replace the existing rolling mill, which was delivered by SMS in 2005. The facility, which is strategically located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula near Zaragoza, Spain, will be designed to produce a range of merchant bar products to complement and expand the company’s existing product portfolio. SMS will supply a walking-beam furnace equipped with the latest reheating technology for eco-friendly operation. Based on a capacity of 120 tons per hour, the furnace will include SMS ZeroFlame HY2 burners, which are capable of operating with both natural gas and a blend of natural gas and hydrogen in any ratio.

Celsa Group, a manufacturer of steel long products, fired an ultra-low-emission reheating furnace for new wire-rod rolling mill in the Celsa France complex. The reheating furnace, built and supplied by Fives, has a capacity of 120 metric tons per hour and is designed to charge hot billets of different sections and lengths directly from the caster at 1472°F (800°C). The final products, wire rods and bars, will serve the region’s construction market. The furnace includes complete digital on/off control and heat curve control for optimum combustion with the billet discharge surface temperature at 2138°F (1170°C).

Tenova Italimpianti received a contract for a 340-ton/hour walking-beam furnace from Jindal United Steel Limited (JUSL), a company that specializes in hot and cold rolling of stainless steels, in Jajpur, Odisha, India. The furnace is designed to charge stainless steel (grade series 200, 300 and 400) and low-carbon steel in order to comply with JUSL’s various production needs. The installed combustion system is designed to optimize performance (flame characteristics, efficiency and pollutant emissions) in function of the fuel and burner location (frontal, lateral or radiant application). The multi-level automation control system optimizes heating practices, regulating fuel consumption and scale production.

Tenova successfully started up two 400-ton/hour walking-beam furnaces at Ternium’s new hot-strip mill in Pesqueria, Mexico. The furnaces are designed to heat steel slabs (up to 39 tons) at 2282°F (1250°C) while keeping NOx emissions lower than 60 ppm. This emissions level is well below the required limit. According to Ternium, the furnaces will produce coils to be used in the North American automotive market.

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG awarded Danieli Centro Combustion an order to supply two walking-beam furnaces for steel slabs for its Bruckhausen hot-rolling mill in Duisburg, Germany. The furnaces will achieve high production while reducing energy consumption and NOx emissions. They will also improve slab surface quality. They have a capacity of 380 tph with cold charging and up to 560 tph with hot charging. Start-up of the slab-reheating furnaces is scheduled for the beginning of 2024.

Tenova received a major order for the supply of a walking-beam furnace from thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG. Designed for the heating of slabs made of alloyed an unalloyed steel, the furnace will be located at the thyssenkrupp’s Beeckerwerth plant in Duisburg, Germany. With a capacity of 380 tons/hour, it will be integrated into the existing hot-rolling mill. The furnace includes a combustion air preheating system to significantly reduce energy consumption. Thanks to the use of low-NOx-emission burners, it will help thyssenkrupp achieve its climate-related emissions targets. Start-up is scheduled for July 2022.

Thyssenkrupp will add a new walking-beam furnace in Hot Strip Mill 2 in the Beeckerwerth plant at its Duisburg, Germany, location. The furnace will ensure improved surface quality of premium sheets used for exterior car body shells. Completion is scheduled for 2022. The walking-beam furnace, which will be over 50 meters long, ensures that surface defects are prevented during the reheating and rolling of slabs. This is achieved by special lifting and lowering devices that prevent damage to the surfaces of the slabs, which weigh up to 30 metric tons. Before the new furnace is built, the old unit will be dismantled.

Fives received an order from CELSA Group, a manufacturer of steel long products based in Spain, for a walking-beam furnace. The furnace, which has a capacity of 120 tons per hour, will reheat billets of different sections and lengths to serve a new rolling mill that specializes in the production of steel billets from the recovery of scrap. The furnace includes complete digital on/off control and heat-curve control for optimum combustion. It will be installed in the CELSA France plant located in the municipalities of Boucau and Tarnos, New Aquitaine region. Commissioning is scheduled in the fall.

Fives received an order from JSW Steel, India’s leading steel producer, for an upgrade project of its reheating furnaces at JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works, which currently produces 12 million tons per year. Fives will modernize two reheating furnaces to increase their efficiency and capacity from 250 tons per hour to 295 tons per hour to meet the new requirements of the hot-strip mill N1. Both walking-beam furnaces were previously supplied by Fives. The project for both furnaces is scheduled to be completed by 2021.