Nanjing Iron & Steel Co Ltd (NISCO) has commissioned the upgraded four-strand bloom caster at its Nanjing plant No.2 together with SMS Concast, a company of SMS group. The modernized caster, designed for an annual production of 8,00,000 tons of blooms, has successfully achieved the targets of the project, namely improvement of the product quality and more flexibility of production thanks to a wide portfolio of steel grades.
The four-strand continuous casting machine – having a nominal radius of 12 meters – is designed to cast two bloom section sizes. Currently in operation is the 255 x 300 millimetre format. Commissioning of the second bloom size – 330 x 420 millimetres – is planned for the end of 2020. High-carbon grades, such as bearing and spring steels, and the full range of steel grades to serve the automotive industry represent the majority of the production. This product portfolio provides NISCO greater production flexibility and enhanced responsiveness to the market demand.
“Thanks to their comprehensive technological know-how and profound experience, SMS Concast was and is the perfect partner for this project. The excellent cooperation between both project teams enabled us to achieve the specified product quality immediately,” says Zhu Ping, Vice General Manager at NISCO.
