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STEEL TIMES IN

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ril 2012 – Vol.36 No.3

April 2012 – Vol.36 No.3 – www.steeltimesint.com

NEWS IRONMAKING COATING CONFERENCE REPORTS

STI april COVER_Layout 1 4/3/12 4:03 PM Page 1

Know your steel – Page 38

NewsNews – Tata Steel invests in UK distribution centre 4

Statistics & Events – February output rises to 119Mt 10

USA Update – US steel industry applauds as politicians talk tough on China 8

Latin America Update – Argentina: A good microeconomic performance but bad macroeconomic policy 12

China Update – China’s steel market is warming up 14

IronmakingAir humidification to improve sintering 19

A new burner design for steam generation fuelled by blast furnace gas 23

Enhancing the efficiency of overflow clarification in a washery thickener 27

CoatingElectroless nickel plating for corrosion and wear resistance 31

Paint systems for steel 36

Efficient furnaces for batch galvanizing 60

Know your steelThe basics of iron and steelmaking – Part 1 Terminology 38

OthersStandardisation of steel plant building in a portfolio of projects 42

The characteristics of Walking Beam Furnaces for plate mills 49

ConferencesCRU’s 18th World Steel Conference 2012 55

CIS Industrial Metals Summit in Moscow 60

History: Bridgebuilding materials of three centuries 68

Steel Times International – April 2012 – 3

Contents

ISSN 0143-7798

April 2012Vol.36/No.3

Front cover imagecourtesy of Midrex

Lebedinsky GOK (LGOK)HBI 2 is a 1.4Mt/yMidrex® Megamod hotbriquetted iron plantlocated near theworld’s largest openpit mine owned byMetalloinvest

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Coating – Page 31 Coating – Page 36

History – Page 68

april contents_Contents_STI_Mar10 4/3/12 4:10 PM Page 3

4 – April 2012 – Steel Times International

News in Brief World News www.steeltimesint.com

VISIT: www.steeltimesint.comTo see a full list of news and features.


NMDC orders sinter plantThe National Mineral DevelopmentCorp Ltd (NMDC), an Indian govern-ment-owned mining company head-quartered in Hyderabad, placed anorder with a consortium headed bySiemens VAI Metals Technologies forthe supply of a sinter plant on a fullturn-key basis. This plant will bepart of a new steelworks that NMDCplans to build in Nagarnar in theIndian state of Chhattisgarh. Thesinter strand will have a suction areaof 460m2 and will be capable ofproducing 4.75Mt/y of high-qualitysinter. The order volume for the con-sortium is approximately €120M.The plant is scheduled to be startedup in late 2013.

Posco millTenova I2S has signed a contractwith Posco to supply a newZR22STG-52” precision 20 HighCluster Mill at the South Koreancompany’s site at Ansan, Korea.Posco plans to produce 30kt/y ofstainless and bright annealed steelat the new facility.The Tenova I2S Mill will produceprecision stainless and brightannealed steel strip from 2.0mm to0.07mm thick, at a maximum widthof 1300mm, at speeds of up to600m/min.

Indian commissioningTwo relocated Corex ironmakingplants from Siemens have beencommissioned in India. Two Corex C-2000 plants originallysupplied by Siemens VAI MetalsTechnologies were relocated fromSouth Korea to India and commis-sioned at Essar Steel’s Hazira works. The plants are designed for 1.7Mt/yproduction and have been mod-ernised by Siemens with new equip-ment and automation systems.Nominal hot metal productioncapacity was achieved within oneweek after start-up.Corex export gas is used to produceDRI at the company's No 5 and No 6direct-reduction plants, as well asfor heating applications throughoutthe steelworks.

Combilift secures forklift awardCombilift had a double success atthe Fork Lift Truck Association’s 18thawards.The Irish company scooped the firstand only ‘Victor Ludorum’ prize,billed by the FLTA as the ultimatewinner of winners in the awards’18-year history.The prize was awarded toCombilift’s Combi-CB model.

Chinesecut oreimports

UK distribution centre

A UK steel distribution centre hasopened on Teesside, UK to pro-vide a faster service for the con-struction industry.

Tata Steel has invested £3.1M tocreate the new facility, which islocated on the company’sLackenby site, adjacent to itsTeesside Beam Mill.

The opening of the centre hasalready led to the creation of 30new jobs, which have been filledby Tata Steel employees rede-ployed from the company’sTeesside Beam Mill and Steelpark

distribution centre in Wednesfield,West Midlands.

The new centre will be responsi-ble for managing and distributingaround 100kt of the company’sconstruction steel stock from theTeesside Beam Mill, the sectionsmill in Scunthorpe, NorthLincolnshire, and Tata Steel’stubes mills in Corby,Northamptonshire.

The new centre could reducethe amount of movement through-out the supply chain by as much as10 000 miles every month.

NZ Steel extends‘green’ agreementA project to convert waste gases tolow carbon fuels and chemicals isbeing extended through an agree-ment between LanzaTech andNew Zealand Steel.

The agreement gives NZ Steel,and its Australian parent companyBluescope Steel, the opportunityto use LanzaTech’s technologycommercially.

The two companies establisheda partnership in 2008 whenLanzaTech built its pilot plant toproduce ethanol from waste gasesat NZ Steel’s mill at Glenbrook,south Auckland.

Reducing carbon emissions playa key role in reducing the environ-mental footprint of the steel indus-try. LanzaTech’s process capturesand diverts to fuel around a thirdof the carbon that would otherwisebe emitted as CO2 through thesteelmaking process.

The NZ Steel pilot has provenLanzaTech’s proprietary fermenta-tion process is scalable from thelaboratory.

Some of the ethanol producedat Glenbrook has been furtherconverted into aviation biofuel aswell as fuel grade ethanol.

Oakajee iron ore dealJapan’s Mitsubishi Corp is to buyout Murchison Metals Ltd (MMX)share of two joint venture iron oreprojects in Australia.

The Australian based Murchisonhas agreed to a cash offer ofUS$315M to give Japan’s largesttrader control of the iron ore mineand a rail and port project inWestern Australia.

Mitsubishi will seek talks withpotential new venture partners,including Chinese groups, to helpbuild the A$5.94bn Oakajee portand rail project.

South Korea’s Posco, whichholds a stake in Murchison, is alsoreported to be interested in retain-ing a stake in the project.

Acquiring the stakes willincrease Mitsubishi’s stake in ironore demand, with consumption inChina, the biggest buyer, forecastto double by 2020 from 2008 lev-els. Murchison said in Septemberit was revising plans for Oakajee,designed to open WesternAustralia’s Mid-West region foriron ore exports to Asia, after fail-ing to get funding.

FundingdeadlineThe Steel ManufacturersAssociation (SMA) and theAssociation for Iron & SteelTechnology (AIST) Foundationhave partnered to commemoratethe life and industry service ofDon B Daily by establishing aMemorial Fund.

The Don B Daily MemorialFund challenges North Americanuniversity teams (students andprofessors) to submit proposalsfor grant funding in the themearea of safety and health aware-ness within the steel manufactur-ing industry.

The dual objective of the fundis to promote a safe workplace forthe steel manufacturing industryand to increase the number ofstudents studying health and safe-ty awareness relative to the manu-facturing environment.

Completed proposals must besubmitted electronically, via PDF,to [email protected] by June 302012

The former consecutive rise inboth volume and costs of China’siron ore imports ended in Januarywhen China purchased 59.32Mt ofconcentrates from abroad.

This was 4.79Mt less than inDecember 2011, and a record lowsince June 2010.

The average price of concentratefell to US$136.47/t in January,compared withUS$162.1/t inNovember, and US$141.2/t inDecember. The price is likely todrop still further in the months tocome leading mills to postponefurther purchases since stocks arehigh. Iron ore stocks at majorinbound ports in China exceeded100Mt by mid February, a histori-cal high, and stocks at major steelworks in the country are estimatedas sufficient for 30 to 45 days atthe current rate of consumption.

Faced with steadily droppingprices, most mills here are in themood of wait-and-see instead ofeagerly replenishing their stocks.

Moreover, the large stocks theyhave built in periods when priceswere still high represent a largeportion of working capitals.Source China Metals e-mail [email protected]

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News in BriefWorld Newswww.steeltimesint.com


Hydraulic distributorsWoodings Industrial will build anddeliver three Hydraulic Distributortops for China’s BaoGang SteelGroup.Two of the tops will be used on thenew #1 and #2 blast furnacesBaoGang is building at its BaotouCity facility in Inner Mongolia whilethe third top will be a spare.The two new 4150m3 blast furnaceswill increase output at the site to16Mt/y of steel.Woodings will build and deliver allthree tops within 11 months.

Turkish Cold Rolling Mill GE Energy’s Power Conversion busi-ness was recently awarded a con-tract for the supply of electrical andautomation equipment at PoscoAssan TST’s Cold Rolling Mill facilityin Turkey. Posco Assan TST is a joint venturebetween Turkey’s Kibar Holding andSouth Korean companies Daewooand Posco. It will build a new stain-less steel mill plant in Izmit, Turkeywhich will meet 40% of Turkey’sdemand for stainless steel.The mills are scheduled to enter intoproduction in H1 2013 with a200kt/y capacity. They will be dedi-cated to roll hot rolled coils for theproduction of ferritic stainless steelmaterials.

Poland commissioningArcelorMittal Poland has commis-sioned two investments worthPL140M ($45.2M) at its D browaGórnicza site.These are a Pulverised Coal Injection(PCI) into blast furnace No 2 and amodernised sinter belt. The PCI is located at blast furnaceNo 2 and is dedicated to the plant.It will replace some coke with pul-verised coal. Pulverised coal is moreenvironmentally friendly than theproduction of coke. The modernisation of sinter belt No2 will result in the productioncapacity of the sinter beingincreased. Two new electro-filters,with a capacity of 900 000m3/h, willreduce dust emissions.

Recycling doubtsAn environmental alliance group hasdoubted the accuracy of Australia’spackaging recycling figures. The Boomerang Alliance lobbygroup estimates 320kt of used bev-erage container packaging is miss-ing from the Australian PackagingCovenant (APC) figures.Source: WPO World Packaging News


Chinese anger at EUsteel investigationChina’s steel industry expressed itsresentment of the EuropeanUnion’s decision to launch an anti-subsidy investigation into Chineseorganic-coated steel exports, anofficial with the Ministry ofCommerce said.

The EU had already launchedan anti-dumping investigation intothe exports in December.

“Launching two probes onChinese organic-coated steelexports may lead to a double rem-edy that violates the rules of theWorld Trade Organization,” theofficial said, adding that the min-istry will closely follow the devel-

opment of the case. All countriesshould unite to cope with the cur-rent economic uncertainties, as theworld economy has yet to shake offthe aftermath of the financial crisisand some European countriesremain mired in debt crises, theofficial continued.

“Launching an anti-subsidyinvestigation into Chinese exportswill send the wrong signal on tradeprotectionism, which will not onlycast a shadow on Sino-EU steeltrade, but also hamper their jointefforts to cope with the crises.”Source China Metals e-mail [email protected]

Australia’s Bluescopeto divide operationsAustralian steelmaker BlueScopewill reorganise its operations tocreate two businesses focused onglobal pre-engineered buildingmarkets and building products.

Of the divisions, BlueScopeGlobal Building Solutions willinclude the company’s NorthAmerican pre-engineered build-ings (PEB), similar PEB units inthe ASEAN region and all itsChina business, BlueScope said ina statement to the stock exchange.

The other division will calledBlueScope Building Products andinclude metal coating, paintingand roll-forming businesses inASEAN and North America, thecompany said.

Bob Moore, BlueScope’sPresident for China operationsand a member of the company'sexecutive leadership team, willtake on the role of chief executivefor the building solutions unit. Thedivision includes more than 5000employees across 21 manufactur-ing plants in eight countries.

Mr Sanjay Dayal, ChiefExecutive BlueScope Asia and amember of the ELT will take bethe new chief executive for thebuilding products group. His rolealso includes responsibility for theNorth American Steelscape andASC Profiles businesses with their3300 employees at 29 manufactur-ing plants in seven countries.

Saudicombi mill

South Steel Company, part of PanKingdom Invest, Saudi Arabia, hasplaced an order with SMS Meer,Germany, for the design and deliv-ery of a combined wire rod and barmill with a capacity of 500kt/y, tobe built in Jizan Economic City insouthern Saudi Arabia.

SMS Concast and SMS Meerhave already supplied a completeminimill for this complex, compris-ing a steel plant with a productionrate of 1Mt/y and an integratedrolling mill for the production ofrebars with a capacity of 500kt/y.

The new combined mill com-prises a 100t/h walking beam fur-nace for billets with dimensions of150mm x 150mm x 14m.

One of the key components ofthe wire rod outlet is the ten-standfinishing block featuringMeerdrive single drive technologyfrom SMS Meer.

China growth slowsCrude steel output in China saw arise of just 4.6% y-o-y to 139.29Mtin the first two months of 2012,with the average daily output at2.32Mt, according to a statementof the National Bureau ofStatistics (NBS).

This is approximately half theaverage growth rate of 09-10(9.2%) which itself was a dropfrom the double digit growth inrecent years (08-09 14.6%; 06-0716.7%; 05-06 18.6% – the excep-tion being 07-08 due to the globalcrisis when growth fell to 2.2%).

The China Iron and SteelAssociation (CISA), for its part,come up with a daily output some540kt (24%) below the NBS valuesaying that the country continuedwith a lower level of output inFebruary averaging 1.6962Mt of

crude steel a day that month. Although this is a little higher

than the January average it is thefourth consecutive month in whichdaily production has been below1.7Mt, compared to the 1.9Mtdaily average in mid 2011.

CISA, daily crude steel output isbased on reports from its memberenterprises, namely the 76 largeand medium-sized steel mills inthe country, which stood at 1.5472Mt in the February 21-29period, down 1.32% from the pro-ceeding ten days.

According to NBS, China’s steeldemand is forecast to continue tosubside this year due to an expect-ed domestic slowdown and falter-ing global economic recovery. Source China Metalse-mail [email protected]

EAF idledindefinitelyArcelorMittal will extend the clo-sure of its EAF in Schifflange,Luxembourg, indefinitely it said.

Its decision, which will affect282 employees at the site, is due toweakness in the construction sec-tor in Western Europe, it said.

“Unfortunately the constructionmarket, for which the products atRodange and Schifflange aremade, has not recovered from thedownturn that started at the end of2008 and there is still no sign ofmeaningful improvement,” NicoReuter, Europe vice-president forlong carbon steel, said.

At its sites at Rodange andSchifflange, considered a singleoperational unit, ArcelorMittalproduces long carbon steel prod-ucts such as reinforcement bars,crane rails and special sections.

The mill in Rodange will contin-ue to operate on two shifts, thecompany said.



World News www.steeltimesint.com



Challenges to Indiansteel industry

Chinesemill delay

Germanoutput‘strong’

Japan’s Sumitomo Corporationand Vietnamese company SMCare to work together on a projectto set up a steel processing plant.

Under the plan, the US$4Mjoint venture will process and dis-tribute high-quality steel for con-struction projects. The joint ven-ture will also act as an agent forJapanese construction steel com-panies selling their products inVietnam.

The joint venture, set to belaunched in April, aims to sell 50ktof steel by the end of 2012, and150kt of sales earning 10bn yen(US$125M) by 2015.

SMC has a 50% share in thejoint venture, Sumitomo Corp30%, Sumisho Tekko Hanbai a15% share and Sumitomo'sVietnamese subsidiary a 5% sharein the joint venture.

The joint venture uses existingwarehouses on 2400m2 of land atan SMC property. The project aimsto expand if local demand for steelcontinues to be high.

It is estimated that Vietnam willrequire about 8Mt of high qualitysteel in 2013, an increase of 60%against the figure for 2010.

Many Japanese steel businesseshave invested in the constructionmarket in Vietnam in recent years.

Before Sumitomo, Nippon Steel& Sumikin (NISC), also known asMarubeni-Itochu Steel,announced their plans to buildjoint-venture steel factories inVietnam while the JS ConstructionGroup recently decided to build afactory specialising in making doorframes for civil housing construc-tion projects.Source Vietnam News, Hanoi;

Vietnam partnership

The German steel industry saidoutput in H1 2011 had beenstrong but stuttered in H2 2011.

However, output increased onceagain in January 2012 comparedwith December 2011 to 3.8Mt, thehighest level since March 2010.

Order levels have risen and inFebruary were 20% higher that thelevel at the same period in 2011.

According to the Munich-basedIFO economic research institutefor the steel industry there is anupward trend in orders.

Fears that a similar crisis to thatof the winter of 2008/2009 havenot materialised.

The German steel institute pre-dicts that steel demand will remainrobust in Germany during 2012,although some slowing is expect-ed. Crude steel production isexpected to reach 44.0Mt justbelow the level of 44.3Mt in 2011.

EmissionsimpactEU energy and climate policythreatenes the steel industry inGermany and could cost it anadditional €1.5bn/y.

This applies not only to steel,but to the entire value chain asprice rises are passed on to cus-tomers.

The European Commission hasset emission benchmarks for 2013that are 10% lower than the emis-sions of the most efficient plants inthe EU and are not technically fea-sible.

These present a massive prob-lem of competition from compa-nies from other regions of theworld not required to meet suchbenchmarks, said Hans JürgenKerkhoff President of the Germansteel institute (VDEh).

The Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS) was established in the EUwith the aim of providing a globalinstrument for climate protectionworldwide. In the past year, theEuropean Commission has notsucceeded in getting a globalagreement and thus, locations out-side of Europe have two clearadvantages over the steel compa-nies within the EU: lower energycosts combined with no or lowcharges for CO2 emissions.

Manish Pande, Regional DirectorCRU in India, said the main chal-lenges to the growth of the steelindustry in India are: – Acquiring mineral concessionsdue to long delays in gaining envi-ronmental and forest clearancepermits;– Land acquisition is a major bot-tleneck;– Need for a clear-cut resettlementand rehabilitation policy for localpeople;– Inadequate handling capacity atports;– Availability and slow speed of railtransport;– Poor roads (only 2% are nationalhighways but these carry 40% offreight);– Low labour productivity (one-third that of China).– Lack of hard coal for coking.

However, positive factors are

the young age of the population,the present low per capita con-sumption of steel (55kg – viz277kg in Europe – EU and 188kgin USA) – this offering greatpotential for growth, the growingdegree of urbanisation requiringsteel intensive infrastructural proj-ects and an abundance of ore –14.6bnt haematite and 10.6bntmagnetite based on a rich 56% Fecut-off threshold.

However, CRU estimate thatdemand for steel in India will growat a CAGR of 6.7% to 2016 withconsumption then at 100Mt.

MoU have been signed toincrease output capacity by 276Mtat present but the history of pastprojects show this to be an aspira-tion rather than a reality and CRUpredict total capacity to be 120Mtby 2015 of which about 33Mt isnew capacity installed between2011 and 2015.

The Government targets for the12th 5-year plan which com-menced 1 April 2012 is a GDPgrowth of 9% from a 10% annualincrease in construction and 9.8%in manufacturing.

Economic development in Indiaslowed to 6% in Q4 2011 from apeak of 9.5% in Q1 2010 whichhas resulted in a slow-down in steelconsumption of -4% in Q4 2011compared with Q4 2010.

However, prices have risenlargely due to the falling value ofthe rupee and increased costs ofraw materials, in particular cokingcoal.

A poor road network may hin-der the Indian steel industryPic source www.flickr.com

The joint venture by ShougangGroup signed last December withMalaysia’s Hiap Teck VentureBerhad is unlikely to start opera-tion this year, said Zhu Jimin,chairman of the group.

Progress of the project alsohinges on the local labour recruit-ment, he continued.

Shougang launched a project tobuild a 1.8bn ringgit ($574. 25M)integrated steel mill in a joint ven-ture.

Output will be steel slab and willbe built on a 1200-acre land inKemaman, an industrial city in thecountry’s East Coast economicdevelopment region that has mod-erate iron ore reserves. The proj-ect, called Eastern Steel, is thelargest Chinese foreign directinvestment to date in Malaysia.Source: China Metalse-mail [email protected]

AustralianventureKobe Steel to invest in theAustralian Southdown iron oreproject

It has reached an agreement totake a 33% equity share in SojitzResources & Technology, a SojitzCorporation subsidiary.

Sojitz Resources & Technologyand Grange Resources are con-ducting a feasibility study for theSouthdown Project. By acquiringshares in Sojitz Resources &Technology, Kobe Steel will hold a9.9% interest in Southdown.

The Southdown Project is a newiron ore project, which will pro-duce magnetite pellet feed. This ispulverized magnetic iron ore, high-ly suitable for processing into pel-lets. Southdown is located 90kmnortheast of Albany on the southcoast of Western Australia.

The project proposes to produce10Mt/y of premium magnetite pel-let feed with about 69% iron con-tent. First shipment is expected in2015. The total cost of the projectis estimated to reach approximate-ly Yen 250bn (US$3bn).

Kobe will also offtake 1.5Mt/y ofthe magnetite pellet feed producedfrom Southdown.



USA Update

FOR many industry observers, it was a case ofthe steel industry’s famous ‘we-told-you-so’ lineas far as China’s tactics and behaviour are con-cerned. But recent developments in bilateralUS-China ties and an initiative taken by the USadministration – and Europe and Japan are alsofollowing suit – could create trade tensions withChina.

Five separate issues related to auto parts,cars, solar panels, anti-subsidy laws and rareearth elements (REE), all with a bearing onsteel – are the subject of what is described as‘request for consultations’ with China – a defacto petition – filed with the World TradeOrganisation concerning restrictions on exportsof rare earths plus tungsten and molybdenum.

The ‘request’ is tantamount to chargingChina with violating WTO terms. Speaking toSteel Times International, a steel industry execu-tive, insisting on anonymity, said that China’sbehaviour in the rare earth controversy was “yetanother instance” of that country ignoring theWTO terms and, obliquely, snubbing theUnited States which had campaigned forChina’s admittance to the body.

At the heart of the dispute lies China’s impo-sition of export taxes and export quotas on rareearth elements. The request for consultations isthe first step in a process whose culminationpoint is a legal case in 60 days at the WTOunless, of course, China abandons its restrictiveapproach on the issue.

China, through its mouth piece Xinhua,warned that the US decision to initiate the lawsuit against China’s rare earth export quotaswould, likely, hurt bilateral trade ties and evenfetch a backlash from China instead of settlingthe rift. China is using the environmental pro-tection argument to restrict its rare-earthexports. But American and European expertscontend that China's rare-earth export restric-tions have nothing to do with the environmentalprotection but more to do with giving China’sindustry an edge over the global industry.

Other elementsExports of Tungsten and Molybdenum, impor-tant elements used both as alloying elements insteels and to make wear resistant componentsto process steels, have also experienced increas-ingly stringent export taxes and quotas over thepast two years despite China having promisedthe WTO when it joined in 2001 that it wouldremove export taxes and quotas on all goodsexcept for a handful of other products.

The timing of the US administration’s action,coming as it does after a recent official visit tothe United States by Chinese future top leaderXi Jinping, is not surprising. It is also an elec-tion year when both the trade unions and theindustry, with their respective supporters in theDemocratic and Republican parties, customari-ly vent their anger at China, one fearing loss ofjobs because of cheap imports and the otherfearing loss of business.

US steel industry applauds as politicianstalk tough on China


*STI New York correspondent

in international trade. The seminar, hosted bythe WTO's working group on trade, debt andfinance, was seen by the AISI as ‘a major oppor-tunity for the US and other concerned govern-ments to press China to end its large and sus-tained interventions in foreign exchange mar-kets, interventions that have made the Chinesecurrency the most severely undervalued majorcurrency in the world’, the letter said.

Buy AmericaThe AISI, often called the ‘voice’ of the USsteel industry, commended the US Senate forpassing the so-called Brown-Merkley amend-ment which purports to ensure proper enforce-ment of the existing ‘Buy America’ require-ments in federal surface transportation pro-grammes.

AISI president and CEO, Thomas J Gibson,criticised the exploitation of a loophole in thelaw to circumvent the use of American steel.Gibson said: “For 30 years, the ‘Buy America’

A WTO appeals panel ruled in late Januarythat China must eliminate its export taxes onnine widely used industrial materials, notincluding rare earths or tungsten. The panelstrongly criticized China’s export quota system,saying the policies favoured Chinese domesticmanufacturers over their global competitorsthat also need the same raw supplies.

The panel did leave open the possibility thatthe separate system of quotas could bereformed instead of being scrapped entirely.However, Chinese officials have been quotedby the country’s media that there will ‘not beany change in the policies’.

Probably inspired by the ‘rare earth initiative’against China, the American Iron and SteelInstitute (AISI) in a letter urged US TreasurySecretary Timothy Geithner and the US TradeRepresentative Ron Kirk to ‘more aggressively’pressure China to institute currency reforms,when he attends the WTO seminar in Genevafocusing on the role of exchange rate practices

One of the outstanding characteristics of US steel manufacturing is that the industry has been able to exercise judicious control ofcapacity aided by strong performance from the automotive sector, besides being export-oriented and having natural resource-based sectors. Output showed a positive trend in 2011 and output rose 5.7% to 7.6Mst in January 2012. By Manik Mehta*

Many new technologies, in particular thosedubbed ‘green’ rely on one or more of the 17Rare Earth Elements (REE).Neodymium and several other REE are used in athird of the permanent magnets in wind tur-bines, while hybrid cars contain as much as20kg of REE depending on the model.

Europium and Terbium are used in TV plasmascreens to produce red and green colours, andcerium is used in self cleaning ovens and to pro-mote healing of burns. High temperature tur-bine blades are yet another application for REEwhich stabilise the microstructure.

Demand for rare earths

statute has required that all iron, steel and othermanufactured goods used in federally-fundedhighway and mass transit projects be producedin the United States. This is a common-senserequirement to ensure that federal taxpayerdollars support manufacturing jobs in theUnited States. Unfortunately, in recent years,some recipients of federal funding have takenadvantage of a loophole in the law to avoidusing American made steel by ‘segmenting’ aproject into several separate contracts so thatfederal funds could be used on some parts ofthe project, while foreign steel is used on otherparts of the same project. The Brown-Merkleyamendment closes this loophole, thereby savingthousands of US jobs that might otherwise beexported abroad.”

The amendment also calls for increasedtransparency in the existing ‘Buy America’waiver process of exemptions so as to ensurethat claims that American-made products areunavailable for use in federally-funded projectsare fully and openly evaluated. This amend-ment, Gibson contended, would ensure thatUS companies with the ability to produce aproduct on which a waiver has been requested,have the opportunity to comment on the pro-posed waiver and offer their products for useon the projects at issue.

The Brown-Merkley amendment is similar tothe one introduced by RepublicanRepresentative Chip Cravaack during theHouse Transportation and Infrastructure mark-up which was adopted without any opposition.Gibson called for swift passage of the surfacetransport bill, which will create jobs whileensuring that domestically produced iron, steeland other manufactured goods are used ininfrastructure projects that receive federal aid.

The ‘Buy America’ cry, frequently echoed bythe steel industry and politicians, was also felt indistant India which was ‘very surprised’ to heara US senator call on TransCanada not to usesteel made in other countries, including India,in the construction of the controversial multi-billion Keystone XL pipeline.

“In the past, TransCanada has chosen to buytheir steel from India. When it comes to theKeystone Pipeline, the steel should be stampedwith ‘Made in America’, said Senator TomCasey who argued that although the KeystonePipeline was inherent with the potential to yieldhuge economic benefits for the country, the fulleconomic impact of the project would not befelt if foreign-manufactured pipe is used tobuild the pipeline.

TransCanada recently announced that itwould proceed with a $2.3bn segment of theKeystone XL Pipeline project from Oklahomato Texas. US lawmakers had asked the compa-ny to clarify that it will not be using steel madein India for the trans-America pipeline.

The pipeline will carry oil from Cushing,Oklahoma to the US Gulf Coast – a processthat could begin as early as 2013.

USA_Layout 1 4/2/12 2:09 PM Page 1


USA Update

In a letter to TransCanada CEO RussellGirling, Casey said the company has a history ofusing foreign steel for its projects. In 2009, thecompany purchased steel from India to com-plete a project. He claimed the company's deci-sion to use Indian steel resulted in layoffs for2000 US steelworkers.

Casey’s interest in American steel becomesobvious because he represents Pennsylvaniawhich has a sizeable steel industry. This is anelection year and US politicians would be askedunpleasant questions by their constituentswhich closely monitor their performance.

Based on the Commerce Department’s mostrecent Steel Import Monitoring and Analysis(SIMA) data, the AISI reported that during thefirst two months of 2012, finished steel importswere 4.1 million net tons (Mst), up 29% overthe 3.1Mst in the year-earlier period.

Total steel import permit applications for themonth of February were 2.549Mst down 10%from the 2.826Mst permit recorded in January,but were up 0.1% from the January preliminaryimports total of 2.546Mst. In February, thelargest finished steel import permit applicationswere for Korea (276kst, down 12% fromJanuary), Japan (157kst, up 23%), Turkey(145kst, up 2%), China (80kst, down 20%) andGermany (67kst, down 38%).

Finished steel imports in the first two monthsof the year rose 29% over the year-earlier peri-od, according to the AISI. The fact is that whileUS demand had indeed picked up, it still wasnot strong enough to return to the pre-reces-sion level.

Market slowsThe US steel market has, meanwhile, beengoing through ‘ups and downs’, as some like tocall the industry’s rapidly changing fortunes.

After having got off to a good start at thebeginning of the year but now, suddenly, seeinga cooling again. After recovering from the mas-sive downturn of the 2008 financial crisis, theUS steel market seemed to be making aremarkable recovery from the recession andwas rising in 2010 and 2011, but Deloitte’s steelpractice is not expecting a boom this year forthe steel industry.

Steel prices surged at the start of 2012 withautomakers, oil and gas drillers, and factoriesincreasing their purchases of the metal in thebackdrop of what many saw as the onset of astrong economic revival.

Prices of hot-rolled coil-a key steel productused for car frames and pipes, rose 20%between November and early January and ris-ing to $748/ton, according to the Steel Index,only to drop to $697 at present.

Analysts say those steelmakers who survivedthe financial crisis and its aftermath haveemerged stronger, having contained and drasti-cally reduced their debt, and creating leanerand more efficient operations. The automobileindustry, a major steel consumer, has had strongdemand for the metal.

US Steel better earningsThe performance of US Steel in the first quar-ter is likely to surpass expectations of most ana-lysts. The US Steel Corp may deliver better

earnings despite lower steel prices. The steelindustry has been closely following the com-ments of analyst Anthony B Rizzuto Jr ofDahlman Rose & Co who believes that strongersteel sales to the automobile industry will com-pensate US Steel for the decline in prices forsteel in the country.

Higher oil prices may bolster the energyindustry’s need for the pipe and tube suppliedby US Steel, as oil companies drill more and thefall in steel prices could be arrested soon.

In their evaluation of steel’s performance inthe fourth quarter of last year, experts agreethe steel industry did face difficult challenges inthat quarter with customers cautiously treadingand refraining from large-scale purchasesamidst global economic uncertainties.

Steel prices kept declining and the US steelindustry was hit by fierce international compe-tition.

But US Steel expects business to improve inthe first quarter because of rising demand fromthe automobile and heavy machinery indus-tries, appliance manufacturers and the energyindustry.

The good news is that despite all the eco-nomic uncertainties and downturn of recentyears, the US steel industry continues to be oneof the world’s leading steel industries.

It has demonstrated its prowess, particularly,in what is described as ‘good old-fashioned’growth and capacity utilisation, besides beinghighly efficient, environmentally responsibleand technologically innovative in steel manu-facture. �

Events Diary

Statistics

MAY 2012

07-10 AISTech 2012Atlanta, Georgia, USA www.aist.org/aistech

07-10 7th China International Steel CongressBeijing, Chinawww.steelcongress.com

09-11 5th China International MetalRecycling ConferenceBeijing, Chinawww.mc-ccpit.com/recycling

28-30 SEAISI Conference & ExpoBali International Convention Centre www.seaisi.org

28-31 Metallurgy LitmashMoscow, Russiahttp://www.metallurgy-tube-russia.com/

30-31 SBB Steel Raw Materials AsiaConference 2012Singapore Marriott www.sbb.com/us/Steel_Raw_Materials_Asia_Conference_2012/

JUNE 201210-13 Scanmet IVLuleå, Swedenhttp://www.scanmet.info/

18-20 27th Steel Success StrategiesNew York, USAwww.worldsteeldynamics.com

19-21 International Metal & MetallurgyExhibitionGuangzhou, Chinahttp://www.julang.com.cn/english/Exhibition.asp

25-27 18th Iron Ore SymposiumAmsterdam, The Netherlandshttp://www.metalbulletin.com/EventDetails/0/4740/18th-International-Iron-Ore-Symposium.html

26-28 Expo Steel - 23rd Brazilian conferenceSao Paulo, Brazilhttp://www.acobrasil.org.br/congresso2012/eng/programa.php

February output rises to 119MtWorld crude steel production was 119Mt inFebruary 2012, 1.9% higher than February2011.

China’s crude steel production for February2012 was 55.9Mt, an increase of 3.3% y-o-y.Japan produced 8.6Mt of crude steel, down by3.7% compared to the same month last year.

South Korea’s crude steel production was5.4Mt, an increase of 7.6% compared toFebruary 2011. Germany produced 3.6Mt ofcrude steel in February 2012, a decrease of3.1% on February 2011.

Turkey’s production was 2.8Mt, an increaseof 12.3% compared to February 2011.

The US produced 7.3Mt, up by 8.5% onFebruary 2011. Brazil’s crude steel productionfor February 2012 was 2.8Mt, 3.4% higher thanFebruary 2011.

The world crude steel capacity utilisationratio of the 59 countries in February 2012increased to 79.7%, 3.1% higher than January2012. Compared to February 2011, the utilisa-tion ratio in February 2012 decreased by 2.8%.

For full listing of monthly statistics by country visit www.worldsteel.org/?action=stats&type=steel&period=latest

More events atwww.steeltimesint.com/events

Steel cappedChina’s Shandong province will cap total pro-duction of iron and steel at 50Mt a year by2015, according to the recently-released pilotprogramme on restructuring of the iron andsteel industrial in the province.

The pilot programme notes the province willcut its iron and steel production by more than10Mt/y during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015). It will also make efforts to improve theconsolidation of its iron and steel industry andreduced the number of steelmakers from theexisting 21 to five or six by 2015.

Small and medium-sized steel mills shouldextend their production of high value addedproducts. Steel mills should also strengthenR&D to develop high-end products.


USA_Layout 1 4/2/12 2:09 PM Page 2

sociated from the trajectory of recovery for thewhole industry.

However, it can be argued that the recentincrease of industrial output – including steelproducts – has been an easy task, because it wasbased on greater use of existing capacity. The dif-ficult phase starts now, because further growth inindustrial production will require significantinvestment, which so far has been delayed bycompanies due to the unsatisfactory macroeco-nomic policy in the country.

Before discussing these macroeconomic hur-dles, it should be stressed that today, invest-ments in the Argentinean steel industry are rel-atively small. Laminados Industriales – a250kt/y heavy plate mill under construction byBeltrame (from Italy) – is expected to come onstream in Q2 2012. This is a small project, witha cost estimated at around $50M.

Ternium Siderar invested some $200M inArgentina in 2011. In addition, this companyapproved a $350M investment package inJanuary 2012, to be developed during 2012 and2013.

Other players in the Argentinean steel indus-try, such as ArcelorMittal, Gerdau, andVotorantim, have postponed any announce-ment of investments and/or have only carriedout minor projects. Understating of this behav-iour is related to the macroeconomic issues.

Macroeconomic hurdlesFirst, all the official figures from Argentinashould be analysed very carefully. On February25th, 2012, the British business publication‘The Economist’ published an article entitled


LA Update

Argentina: A good microeconomic performance but bad macroeconomic policy

IN a previous Update in 2009, it was statedthat three investments in Argentina – to be car-ried out by Gerdau, Vetorial and TerniumSiderar – were announced but then postponedin late 2008 as a consequence of the globalfinancial turmoil (STI, March 2009, p 16). Atthat time, the industry moved from ‘heaven tohell’ in just a few days. This article looks at whathas happened since 2008.

According to the national steel association,Acero Argentino, the country’s quarterly appar-ent consumption of steel products declinedfrom 1.4Mt in Q2 2008 to 920kt in Q4 2008and dropped further to a minimum of 550kt inQ2 2009 (Fig 1). After this, a considerablerecovery in demand occurred improving to1.2Mt in Q4 2009 and has continued theupward trend reaching 1.4Mt in Q4 2011 evenrecovering to marginally above (1.6%) the high-est level in Q2 2008.

The output of crude steel and hot rolledproducts shown in Fig 2 followed a similar pro-file. Crude steel output plummeted from 1.5Mtin Q3 2008 to 800kt in Q1 2009, and thenrecovered to 1.2Mt in Q4 2009 reaching 1.4Mtin Q4 2011, but, unlike demand, remainedbelow the peak value in Q2 2008 by 6.3%.

For hot rolled products, the key inflexionpoints were: 1.5Mt in Q2 2002, 750kt in Q12009 and 1.4Mt in Q4 2011. Again, the recov-ery was just short of the pre-crisis record.

Fig 3 shows Argentina’s quarterly exports ofrolled products remained around the 200-350ktplateau. Imports, however, grew steadily from100kt in Q1 2009 to 250kt by Q4 2011.Importantly, the quarterly trade surplus of180kt in Q1 2009 became a small deficit (20kt)in Q4 2011. This deficit is expected to grow in2012 as steel consumption is expected toexpand 3.6%.

At the microeconomic level, higher demandand imports stimulate investments towardsincreasing domestic capacity. Another key driv-er is the utilisation of installed capacity. TheArgentinean steel industry – similar to what wasseen globally – was operating with little idlecapacity prior to the 2008 global crises.

In Q3 2008, the utilisation ratio reached92%. This ratio fell to just 48% in Q1 2009before improving to 79% in Q4 2010 and fur-ther to 86% in Q4 2011. Although use did notrecover to the maximum value in 2008, this isstill a very good performance compared to itsLatin American peers.

Comparatively the utilisation of rated capac-ity of Argentina’s industry as a whole, the out-come is even better than that of the steel indus-try, as the fall following 2008 was smooth from76% in Q3 2008 to 70% in Q1 2009.Furthermore, the recovery was quite rapid,reaching 82% in Q4 2011. Therefore, the goodperformance in the steel market cannot be dis-

*Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil.

Email [email protected]


The Argentinean steel market has recovered well in the past two years but it seems domestic steel companies will not benefit asthey face disincentives to invest to meet the growing demand due to poor macroeconomic forecasts as government statisticsprove unrealistically optimistic. By Germano Mendes de Paula*

‘Don’t lie to me, Argentina’, highlighting that:‘Since 2007 Argentina’s government has publishedinflation figures that almost nobody believes.These show prices as having risen by between 5%and 11% a year. Independent economists, provin-cial statistical offices and surveys of inflation expec-tations have all put the rate at more than doublethe official number. The government has oftengranted unions pay rises of that order. (…) In anextraordinary abuse of power by a democratic gov-ernment, independent economists have been forcedto stop publishing their own estimates of inflationby fines and threats of prosecution. Misreportedprices have cheated holders of inflation-linkedbonds out of billions of dollars”.

Bearing this problem in mind, according tothe governmental figures, GDP increased 9.2%in 2010. It is expected that it will release a 9.4%growth in 2011 (Fig 4). Nevertheless, this fig-ure is much higher than the true growth esti-mated by economic consultants and investmentbanks. US based Citi Bank estimates that thetrue GDP increase was 7.7% in 2010 and 5.7%in 2011. Citi is forecasting a 3.0% GDP growthin 2012 and 4.0% in 2013, which is 40% and20% lower respectively than that forecast by thegovernment.

Argentina is putting into practice a heterodoxcombination of policies: strong monetaryexpansion, import restrictions, and capital con-trols. The country – and Latin America as awhole – has a history of bad memories over sim-ilar experiences in the past. Thus, the reduc-tion, the postponement or even the cancellationof investment projects is a reasonable reaction,even in the context of a hot market.

Fig 4 Comparison of GDP growth forecasts2008-2011 (% y-o-y)

Fig 3 Quarterly exports and imports ofrolled steel products 2008-2010 (kt)

Fig 2 Quarterly production of crude steeland rolled steel products 2008-2010 (kt)

Fig 1 Quarterly apparent consumption ofsteel products 2008-2010 (kt)

LA_Layout 1 4/2/12 2:09 PM Page 1

CHINA Update

China’s steel market is warming up

CHINA traditionally experiences increasedconsumption of steel following the ChineseNew Year which commences in January orFebruary each year. In 2012, it commenced onJanuary 23rd and the steel market sawincreased confidence with prices starting to risefrom a trough. A recovery of the real estateindustry and an increase in the build of socialhousing for low and medium income familiesincreased demand for long products. Iron oreprices, however, remain high causing the cost ofproduction for steel mills to remain high.

Steel output falls Based on statistics provided by the China Iron& Steel Association (CISA), the output ofChina’s steel mills during the first half of 2011climbed to a daily average of 2.02Mt and thengradually declined thereafter. Due to a steepdrop in steel prices in October 2011, daily pro-duction increased briefly as buyers took advan-tage to increase inventories but the downwardtrend persisted. Daily production during thesecond half of December plummeted to 1.63Mtwhich was a record low for 2011.The number has remained below 1.7Mt during

January and February of this year but jumped toa daily average of 1.89Mt in the first half ofMarch, a rise of 13.08% year-on-year. Thereduction in production capacity in mills cou-pled with an increase in the selling price of steelindicates the recovery of downstream demandand a fall in the inventories held by both steelmills and traders.

The output of crude steel has witnessed adramatic shrinking since September 2011,which was mainly brought about by the sharpdrop in steel prices during that month.Lukewarm downstream demand and financiallosses reported by a number of steel companiesalso gave rise to little enthusiasm for steel millsto increase production.

Small and medium sized companies wereparticularly exposed to cost pressures and somewere even forced to stop or reduce production.The negative growth of daily output somewhatalleviated the present conflict of supply exceed-ing demand.

Major steel companies have adjusted sellingprices downward by 800 yuan/t or aboutUS$127/t, which was a reasonable level for

*STI correspondent in China

www.steeltimesint.com14 – April 2012 – Steel Times International

The market for steel in China is expected to grow in the second quarter 2012 driven by a traditional increase in demand from theconstruction sector as the weather improves along with an increase in residential house builds supported by a government policyto build more social housing. By Shi Lili*

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downstream customers. Most of these marketparticipants have been operating at a loss forthe past 5 or 6 months and such a situation hadto change soon. Along with the release of down-stream demand and the expectation of a risingmarket, it is predicted that steel prices willincrease in the second quarter of 2012.

Social housing build risingBased on figures from China’s National Bureauof Statistics, the total investment in infrastruc-ture in January and February 2012 totalled2118.9bn yuan (US$336.3bn), up 21.5% fromthe period a year ago. The rate of growthdeclined 2.3% compared with the whole year of2011. The recession in real estate accounts forthis decline in investments in infrastructure.The total money put into real estate during thefirst two months of this year came to 543.1bnyuan ($86.2bn), up 27.8% y-o-y, and a declinein the rate of growth of just 0.1%. New buildhouses witness an obvious drop and sales ofhouses underwent negative growth.

At present, China’s government is still close-ly watching the speculative action in the realestate industry. Yet a supportive policy for asolid demand for houses can still be seen in var-ious provinces. For example, policies that stim-ulate consumption of household appliances,automobiles and social housing have been putinto practice since March. Also, despite pres-sure on land supply and monetary support,social housing is still one major factor pushingforward the demand for long products for steelconstruction materials.

Inventories fallingAlthough the pressure on supply seemed slightin the earlier part of the year due to a restric-tions in output adopted by most of China’ssteel mills, the low amount of trading in steelbefore and after the New Year Holiday gave riseto a big rises in steel inventories. Especiallyafter the three weeks of China’s New Year hol-iday that continued until the end of February,steel stocks in major cities jumped 45.8%, anincrease of 2.67Mt, to 8.5Mt.

This put a large constraint on the productionof steel. The whole market was covered by pes-simism afterwards. Yet, by the end of February,most end users were back in operation and the

downstream demand returned to normal. Thesurplus in the stock of construction steel finallyand inventories began to drop by a smallamount.

Price of iron ore Iron ore prices remained stable into the NewYear (January 23) and did not experiencemarked fluctuations despite a strong decline inthe price of steel. The cause was multiple: Salesin the real estate market were slow causingdownstream demand for construction steel tobe lukewarm.

This put downward pressure on the volume ofore purchased. Also, supplies of ore from Indiadropped due to the Indian government increas-ing the tax on exports of ore from 20% to 30%from December 30, 2011. Since India hasalways been seen as the major alternative suppli-er of ore to Australia and Brazil, such a decisionwas a hard blow to China’s whole steel industry.

In addition, based on a ‘Notice’ releasedjointly by China’s Finance Ministry andNational Taxation Bureau recently, the tax onores including iron ore, tin, molybdenum, mag-nesite and talc will all be adjusted upwards.

The tax increase for iron ore rises from 60%to 80%. Therefore, China’s steel mills are cor-nered with a tight supply of raw materials whichis unlikely to change in the coming few years.

The majority of traded iron ore resourcesaround the world are in the hands of threemajor mining companies. China’s domestic ironore grade is generally low and requires concen-tration to be comparable with imported ore.Upstream supply has been put under the con-trol of mining companies and such a positionwill not change in a short period.

Along with the recovery of construction steelfrom a low market level, the purchase volumefor iron ore will increase and ore prices will gen-erally be more exposed to increases, with gentledownturns from time to time.

With the coming of the traditionally high con-sumption season, there is confidence that thesteel market will recover from its current troughdriven by favourable policies on real estate,social housing, and less volatility in iron oreprices. Some traders would like to hold ontotheir inventories waiting for further priceincreases and downstream users are also moreoptimistic about the future market.

This indicates China’s steel market will warmup in the second quarter 2012 based on theimproved expectations of real demand. �

China 2_Layout 1 4/2/12 2:10 PM Page 1

Ironmaking

THE role of the sinter plant in any integratedsteel works has become prominent because ofthe marked growth in the use of agglomeratedcharge in the blast furnace. This prominence isnot only due to the need for agglomeration ofiron ore fines generated during mining opera-tions but also due to the fact that when sinterreplaces ore in the blast furnace burden, eitherpartially or fully, there is an improvement inproductivity and a fall in the coke rate require-ment of the blast furnace. The quality of thesinter plays a vital role in the performance ofthe blast furnace. Improvement in sinterstrength, size and reducibility increases the per-formance of the blast furnace.

Sinter quality and furnace productivitydepends on many factors including the type ofraw materials input, the operation of the sinterplant and its design parameters. The productivityof a sinter machine is directly proportional to itssintering area, the bulk density of the sinter mix,the vertical sintering speed of the flame front andthe yield of blast furnace (BF) grade sinter.

The grade of raw materials, sinter processand equipment parameters cannot easily bechanged in an existing plant. With factors suchas sinter machine area and bulk density of thesinter mix fixed constants, the productivity of asinter machine can only be increased by increas-ing the vertical sintering speed, therebyenabling the travel speed and so throughput ofthe sinter bed to be increased, and by increas-ing the yield of suitable BF sinter exiting thesinter machine.

The vertical sintering speed depends on thevelocity of the air infiltration through the sinterbed. As the combustion zone starts from thetop of the bed and moves down towards thegrating, an increase in the air velocity helps toburn the carbon in the charge mix faster thus agreater rate of sintering is achieved.

Air humidification by spraying steam ontothe sinter bed is one of the simplest modifica-

Air humidification by spraying steamonto the sinter bed is a simple and effective method of increasing sinter lineproductivity, improving sinter line cokerate, lowering emissions and loweringpower consumption of the exhaustermotor. The quality of the sinter is alsoenhanced which improves operation ofthe blast furnace. * By A Prasad, S Parida, Dr S Chaudhuri & A Das

tions required to improve heat transfer and alsogenerate greater heat from the coke fines in thecharge. It also increases the velocity of the airinfiltration through the bed.

Humidification increases the heat transferrate in the sinter bed as the heat absorbingcapacity of the air infiltrating the bed is greatlyenhanced in the presence of steam because ofthe high specific heat of steam. It also increasesthe ratio ηco = CO2 / ( CO+CO2) resulting ina higher heat output from the same quantity ofcoke breeze. In addition, due to improved per-meability of the sinter bed, the load on theexhauster motor is reduced so lowering con-sumption of electrical power to the motor.

Humidification trials carried at the sinterplant of Bokaro Steel Plant showed a decreasein coke consumption, and an increase in thevertical sinter speed resulting in improved pro-ductivity by increasing the speed of travel of thesinter machine. Also. due to the resulting com-plete combustion of coke there was a decreasein the carbon monoxide concentration in thesinter exhaust gases.

An improvement in sinter quality was alsoobserved in terms of greater strength and adecrease in sinter fines. This improves the per-meability of the blast furnace burden whichleads to better productivity in the blast furnace.

Laboratory studies carried out by a Japanesesteel plant1 using sintering pots indicate that anincrease in humidity of the air decreases the sin-tering time, increases the rate of reaction,increases the yield, increases the FeO contentand provided other benefits. Humidification ofthe air to 80-90g/Nm3 provided the desiredresults in these pot tests. Similar results havebeen achieved during industrial trials at Bokarosteel plant. A decrease in power consumptionof the exhauster fan motor is another notewor-thy result achieved during the trials.

Theoretical backgroundSintering is a metallurgical process where finesized iron bearing materials, ore, mill scale andfluxes (eg limestone) are agglomerated by mix-ing with solid fuels. The charge materials arethoroughly mixed, moistened and the mix dis-tributed onto the moving pallet of the sintermachine. Coke breeze is then charged so as toconstitute the top layer on the pallet, and this isignited in the ignition zone. Ambient air issucked through the charge by creating suction

under the bed by exhausters driven by a motor.This air drawn through is heated by the hot

sinter already produced in the top layer of thebed. This exchange of heat cools the sinter inthe top layer. The air leaving the sintered zoneprovides heat to the still green sinter mix in thelower part of the bed. The rate of heatexchange determines the vertical sinteringspeed. A lowering of this vertical sinteringspeed required slowing of the sinter machinetravel speed to ensure complete sintering of thecharge. In turn, the rate of heat exchangebetween the air and the charge depends on thespecific heat capacity of the air and the perme-ability of the bed. The permeability of the bedafter the ignition zone depends on the sinteringreaction. If the sintering process is slow thedepth of the high temperature zone or the meltzone will increase and this will decrease perme-ability of air through the bed. The permeabilitythrough the bed generally decreases at 50 to70% of the length of the machine from thecharge end. This is mainly due to an increase inthe depth of the high temperature zone or themelt zone in this part of the sinter bed. Fig 1illustrates the three zones within the sinter bed.

To increase the rate of exchange of heatbetween the air and the charge, either the quan-tity of air sucked through the charge has to beincreased or the specific heat of the air has tobe raised. The quantity of air required is deter-mined by the specific heat of the charge and ofthe air. The specific heat of the air can beincreased through humidification by injectingsteam over the sinter bed as the specific heat ofsteam is 1.8 times greater than that of dry air.Thus the same quantity of air with steam pass-ing through bed will have a greater capacity forheat exchange. The heat capacity (Cs) for moistair is given by:

Cs = a + bH

where a and b are constant with values0.24kcal/oC and 0.45kcal/oC respectively2, andH is the natural humidity of the air.

The exhaust gases from sintering contain car-bon monoxide formed by the Boudouard reac-tion (C + CO2 2CO) as well as byincomplete combustion of coke breeze. As aresult of the intensification of the sinteringprocess, the chemical process of fuel combus-

*The authors are with the Design & Engineering Division, Research and Development Centre for Iron & Steel, Ranchi Steel Authority of India limited [email protected] , [email protected]


Fig 2 One of sevensteam spray headerspositioned over thesinter bed

Fig 1 Cross section of sinter bed

Green mix zone Hot temp. zone

Sinter zone

Spray header Spray header support

Steam injectionover sinter bed

Sinter bed

Air humidification to improve sintering


prasad_Layout 1 4/3/12 10:49 AM Page 1

spray headers. The spray headers are dividedinto three groups with 3, 2, and 2 spray pipes.There are 12 full jet spray nozzles fitted in eachof the seven spray pipes, each nozzle having a90o spray angle. The spray header and the mainheader are connected through three 40NBpipes fitted with ball valves to shut off thesteam supply to the individual spray header ifrequired. The spray headers are supported by aheader frame and supports.

Manual valves: The 50NB pipe connecting thesource of steam to the main header is fittedwith a manual pressure reducing valve, globevalve and ball valve. The ball valve is to shut offthe steam supply to the main header. To regu-late the steam flow over the bed the globe valveand pressure regulating valve are used.

Instrumentation: The 50NB connecting pipe isfitted with a solenoid valve which has beeninterlocked with the sinter machine drive. Thesteam supply to the main header stops if thesinter machine stops. This avoids wastingsteam. A steam trap is also provided to drainany condensate from the pipes. Pressure and

temperature transmitters are also provided inthe 50NB connecting pipe.

Trial results The results of the trials show a number of ben-efits of humidification:• Improvement in air infiltration velocity: Theair infiltrations velocity through the bedincreased from between 0.11 – 0.15m/sec to0.17 – 0.23m/sec as indicated in Table 1 for thewind boxes 14-23 humidified. This indicatesthat the heat transfer rate between the humidair and charge has increased leading to anincrease in the permeability of the sinter bed.The increased in the air infiltration velocity hasresulted in an increase in the vertical sinteringspeed and the burn through temperature (BTP)of the 23rd wind box increased by 60-70oC.This allowed the machine speed to be increasedfrom 1.9m/min to 2.1-2.15m/min. Machines 2& 3 which are without air humidification arerunning at 1.85m/min.

• Decrease in Coke rate: The trial results haveindicated a substantial decrease in coke rate.The coke rate of machine No1 where humidifi-cation is installed has decreased by an average1-2t/h to 19-21t/h and combustion of coke iscomplete. The other two sinter machines with-out humidification average a coke rate of 22-23t/h and combustion of the coke is incom-plete. This lower coke rate in machine No1 hasbeen achieved despite the fact that the undergrate suction is lower at 450-500mmWC thanthe other two machines which have a suctioncapacity of 600-650mmWC.

• Improvement in Sinter quality: The trialresults indicate a substantial improvement inthe tumbler index value (TI). The TI value ofthe sinter with steam spray was in the range 78-80 whereas the TI value without steam spraywas in the range 67-70. The trial results alsoindicate a decrease in the generation of sinterfines (-5mm). Examples of results of the sizedistribution over two days of sampling are pre-sented in Table 2. This decrease in sinter fineswas consistently observed and has improved theyield of sinter grade suitable for the blast fur-nace.

• Decrease in environmental pollution: Thecomplete combustion of the coke breeze hasalso reduced carbon monoxide emission in thesinter exhaust gases. Fig 3 illustrates completecombustion of coke breeze in the sinter at thedischarge end of the line while Fig 4 indicatesthe condition without air humidification andshows incomplete combustion of the coke.Dust emission at the discharge end in machine1 are almost negligible now compared to dustemitted from the other two machines. This canbe attributed to the higher tumbler index valueof the sinter formed with steam spray.

tion is more complete. The gas phase watervapour content ie H+ and OH- radical pro-motes the rate of reaction3,4 of CO with O2 toform CO2.

Air humidification system The system for air humidification throughsteam injection over the sinter bed has beeninstalled in machine No1 of the sinter plantBSP between wind boxes 14 -17 as indicated inFig 2. The total length of the machine is69 000mm and the width of the pallet 4000mm.There are 23 wind boxes. The air velocitythrough the bed is at its lowest between 60-70%of the sinter machine length measured from thecharging end. The quantity of steam requiredfor humidification of the air to the optimumvalue of 80-90g/Nm3 is 600kg/h for air travel-ling at a velocity 0.2m/sec.The humidification system consists of:

Steam headers: The source of steam supply isconnected to the main header through a seam-less connecting pipe of NB-50 grade and themain header is fabricated from 50NB seamlesspipes. The main header supplies steam to the

Ironmaking


Wind box Air velocity (m/sec) Air velocity (m/sec) Before humidification After humidificationLHS RHS LHS RHS

Table 1 Effect ofsteam spray on airinfiltration velocity

14 0.10 0.13 0.15 0.18

15 0.11 0.15 0.15 0.18

16 0.11 0.15 0.17 0.17

17 0.12 0.14 0.18 0.18

18 0.13 0.14 0.20 0.18

19 0.12 0.15 0.22 0.17

20 0.12 0.15 0.24 0.18

21 0.13 0.15 0.24 0.20

22 0.13 0.16 0.27 0.21

23 0.15 0.18 0.35 0.23

Dat

e &

tim

e

28.4.07

1.50pm 34.90 10.7 30.8 2.4 6.8 5.38 15.4 9.36 26.8 7.02 20.1

28.4.07

10.25am 58.50 11.9 20.3 5.1 8.6 12.9 22.1 21.06 35.9 7.6 12.9

30.4.07

10.00am 23.90 7.6 31.7 1.9 7.94 3.88 16.2 5.78 24.1 4.68 19.6

30.4.07

12.20pm 32.02 8.1 25.2 2.4 7.62 7.18 22.4 10.48 32.7 3.7 11.5

Table 2 Effect of steam spray on sinter size

Wei

gh

tsa

mp

le (

kg)

Sinter granulametry

+40mm +25mm +10mm +5mm -5mm

Wt % Wt % Wt % Wt % Wt %

Complete combustion of coke with steam spray at Sinter plant BSL Incomplete combustion of coke without steam spray at Sinter plant BSL

Fig 3 Discharge end of sinter machine fitted with steam humidifica-tion depicting uniform coke combustion

Fig 4 Discharge endof machine withoutsteam additiondepicting non-uni-form coke combus-tion

Withoutsteam

WithSteam

Withoutsteam

WithSteam



XX – April 2012 – Steel Times International

• Decrease in exhauster motor power consump-tion: Due to the decrease in the depth of thehigh temperature zone or the melt zone in thebed, the permeability of the bed has improved.As a result of the lower resistance to the air flowthrough the bed and the decrease in density ofthe air – steam mix, the load on the exhaustermotor has decreased.

There are two exhausters, driven by a3.3MW 11kV high voltage motor per machine.A saving of 660kWh in motor power consump-tion was measured on the sinter line usinghumidification.

This power saving translates into tens of mil-lions of rupees savings each year.

Ironmaking


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ConclusionIncreasing the humidity of the sinter air increas-es the vertical sintering speed and also improvesthe permeability of the bed. The machine speedcan therefore be increased with increased verti-cal sintering speed, which leads to greater pro-ductivity of the sinter machine. At the sametime, the quality of the sinter is improved, theproportion of fines reduced, emissions loweredand power requirements to the exhaustermotors reduced.

AcknowledgementThe authors express their gratitude to management ofRDCIS-SAIL, Ranchi , the task force members of this

project and the management of Bokaro steel plant in par-ticular for helping us in the implementation of the proj-ect and allowing us to undertake the industrials trials.

References1 Teste - To - Hagne Vol -71, No 9-12, 1985‘Measured Heat Pattern in pot sintering studies doneby Japanese steel plant’1. B Vanderheyden, J Borlee, J M Brouhon ‘Impactof waste gas recycling on sintering performance andemissions’, 55th Iron Making conferenceProceedings, Pittsburg, Page No 389-3872. Perry’s Handbook for Chemical Engineers, Vol 13. Ya B Zedovich and N N Sementov Zh Eksp, Teor,Fiz, 1940, 10, (9-10), 1116-1136


Ironmaking

A new burner design for steam generationfuelled by blast furnace gas

BOILERS #1-5 of the Power Plant-I, of BhilaiSteel Plant, India, are of an old 1960s designand the rated capacity of each boiler is 150t/hof superheated steam at 40atm pressure and atemperature of 450oC. The boiler is designedfor firing with multiple fuels – pulverised coal,blast furnace (BF) gas, coke oven (CO) gas andPCM (Pitch & Creosote Mix).

The earlier BF-gas burners were of rectangu-lar shape at the burner mouth. In front of theBF-gas burner, a refractory embrasure (checkerwork) was provided to ensure proper mixing ofBF-gas with air for combustion. The flame wasformed within this refractory embrasure andthen passed through the refractory slots withinthe embrasure before entering the boiler cham-ber. This tended to result in early failure of therefractory brickwork of the embrasure.

Obstruction to the path of the flame and tothe flue gases due to fallen bricks was resultingin the flame being reflected back inside theembrasure. Frequent flame leakage at the junc-tion between the burner and embrasure, dam-age to the outside shell, structures and burnerfront were creating boiler maintenance andoperational problems. The burners had to beoperated at reduced capacity and, at times, shutoff for repair and maintenance work.

A new burner design was developed to per-mit the use of BF-gas firing to a much greaterextent and the solution does not require arefractory embrasure. Six BF gas burners of thenew design were made and installed in boiler#3 after dismantling the former six BF-gasburners along with their refractory embrasures,in October, 2010. All the new burners generatea stable and bushy flame.

The new burner design has given several ben-efits such as elimination of refractory mainte-nance, improvement in burner availability, use

A new design of burner which uses low calorific value blast furnace gas in a steam boiler has been implemented. It has enabledthe use of BF-gas to be increased thereby reducing the need for pulverised coal as a supplementary fuel by 7200t/y and so reduceCO2 emissions and fly ash removal. It has also contributed to an annual cost saving of around US$405k.By M Sen, P K Jha, I N P Gupta, A P Singh & A Das

of a greater proportion of BF-gas whichreplaces the equivalent quantity of purchasedcoal so reducing CO2 emissions and fly ash for-mation. The pay back period is less than twomonths.

All the equipment of Boilers #1-5 is Russianmade and were installed in the period 1959 –1970. The capacity of each coal burner is about4-5t/h. At the centre of each coal fired burner,an oil gun is provided to fire PCM (or tar) at acapacity of 800kg/h. Four CO gas burners areprovided on the front wall, each with a capacityof 2500Nm3/h. Six BF-gas burners (three oneach side wall) are installed on the two sidewalls and located below the pulverised coalsburners. The design capacity of each of the BFgas burner is 16500Nm3/h.

Boilers #1 -5 are of very old design and haverefractory walls on all four sides, unlike moremodern boilers with membrane type walls (as inboiler #6 of PP-I). The refractory embrasureoriginally located in front of each of the old BF-gas burners was provided to ensure proper mix-ing and combustion of the BF-gas with air andhad a total of 40 vertical refractory slots at fourlevels (10 slots each) on the boiler side of theembrasure. There are two vertical refractoryslots through which the BF gas flame enters theboiler chamber and beside these slots verticalfire-tubes carry the water to be turned intosteam (Fig 1 & 2).

It was decided to design and develop a suit-able high capacity BF-gas burner which did notrequire a refractory embrasure and to replacethe original BF-gas burners with the new designas a trial in one of the boilers. It was anticipat-ed that the new burner would reduce burnerand boiler maintenance time, improve burneravailability and enable an increase in the use ofBF-gas burnt in the boiler so replacing an

equivalent quantity of purchased coal for steamgeneration.

Existing BF gas combustion Each burner has two identical parts, named Aand B in Fig 2. Each part is supplied with gasand air via separate supply lines. The air supplylines are of rectangular cross section of dimen-sions 450mmx400mm and the BF gas lineshave circular cross sections of diameter400mm. Separate isolation valves are providedin all the air and BF gas connecting pipes foreach of the six burners. Control valves are alsoprovided in each burner for control of the BF-gas flow rate and so the BF-gas/air ratio.

A BF-gas and combustion air header is pro-vided on each of the two sides of the boiler.One gas header supplies BF-gas to three BF-gasburners installed on one side of the boiler andthe other header supplies three more burners inthe opposite wall. Similarly, each air header sup-plies combustion air to each of three burners.Each pipe connecting the header to a burner isprovided with two expansion bellows of circularshape to take care of thermal expansion. Thepipes connecting the air have only one expan-sion bellows which is of rectangular shape totake care of thermal expansion.

New BF-gas combustion systemAfter a thorough study of the original combus-tion system of boilers #1-5, including the avail-able gas and combustion air pressures, furnacedimensions, space and the existing facilities, itwas decided to design a new BF-gas combus-tion system meeting the following conditions:

– The existing water wall in front of the BF-gas burner would not to be altered.

– The burner location would be more or less


The authors are with the Research & Development Centre for Iron & Steel (RDCIS), Steel Authority of India Ltd, Ranchi- 834002, India Tel & Fax +91 651 2411093 e-mail [email protected]

Fig 3 New BF-gas burner comprising a gasdistributor to split the BF-gas stream into12 rectangular and identical streams

Water tube

Original BF gasburner

BF gas Air

Refractory embrasureBoiler side-wall

Flames from individual slotPART A

Flam

es t

hrou

gh s

lots

PART B Watertube

New BF gas burner

BF gas

Boiler side-wall

Air

Fig 1 Original BF-gas burner design withrefractory embrasure to mix gases

Fig 2 Original BF-gas burner design showingthe two identical parts A & B


power gen_Layout 1 4/4/12 8:44 AM Page 1


– Combustion air flow: 12500 Nm3/h from the existing FD fan.

– Turn down ration 1:4.

All six burners are provided with a separatebutterfly damper in the air inlet pipe and a sep-arate butterfly valve in the BF-gas inlet pipe foreach of the two parts of the burner (A & B).

Refractory wall modification The burner location was kept the same as thatof the earlier BF-gas burners. Separate air andBF gas connections are provided to the twoidentical parts of each burner, part A and partB. Each part is provided with four vertical slotsat three levels giving a total of 12 vertical slotsin each part (Figs 3 & 4 ). The design of therectangular refractory slots, provided in the sidewalls of the boiler and in front of the burnerwas unchanged.

For ease of installation of the new burner, thetop three levels of the existing rectangular slotswere used and the lowest level of refractory slotssealed with suitable refractory bricks (Fig 5). Amodified burner port at the burner side (ie cold

face of boiler refractory wall) after closing thesurplus refractory slots in the lowest row and atthe centre of the parts-A and -B of the newburner is shown in Fig 6.

Only one of the lowest row of slots for burn-er Nos 1, 3, 4 and 6 were used for insertion ofa pilot CO gas light in each burner.

The hot face of the boiler remains complete-ly covered with boiler tubes (water walls).Hence for positioning the six new BF-gas burn-ers, suitable modification of both the left andright side refractory walls and burner ports werenecessary to install the new BF-gas burners.

CommissioningSince the new design does not require any refrac-tory embrasure, all six old BF gas burners of boil-er #3 along with their refractory embrasure weredismantled and six new design burners installedin the same locations – three per side.

Initially, CO gas burners located on the frontwall were ignited and operated for about 24hours. During this period about 10% of therequired combustion air was allowed to flowcontinuously through the new BF-gas burnersin order to cool the burner tips. No BF-gas wasfired through any of the six new burners at thisstage. This was performed to monitor the effectof the increasing boiler and water wall temper-atures paying special attention to the thermalexpansion of the newly installed BF-gas burnersand their gas and air pipe connections. Afterbeing completely satisfied with the newlyinstalled pipe connections, expansion bellowsetc, it was agreed to light the new burners thefollowing day.

The new burners were lit in sequence whilethe CO gas burners were still operating. Theperformance of boiler #3 was observed for sev-eral hours with BF-gas firing through all six BF-gas burners while the CO gas burners contin-ued in use. It was observed that a maximum96000Nm3/h of BF gas could be fired throughall six new burners as per the design value of16000Nm3/h (16000 x 6 = 96000Nm3/h) ofBF gas. However due to the generation of ahigh volume of flue gas when using the lowcalorific value (CV) BF-gas compare to a richerfuel, the load on the ID fan was increasing. Asa result of this, and also due to the higher resist-ance in the flue draught system of boiler #3,the BF gas flow was moderated to around80000Nm3/h and the performance observed.The boiler performance was found to be satis-factory. The flame configurations in all six burn-ers were found to be stable and properlyanchored. At a reduced flow rate of 4000Nm3/hper burner, the flame was found to be bushyand properly anchored. No pulsation of theflame or soot formation was observed underany conditions.

Optimisation firing rateFlame anchoring and flame configuration ineach BF-gas burner were observed at differentgas flow rates. The performance of the burnersand boiler #3 were satisfactory at a burner turn-down ratio of 1:4. Flame anchoring was foundto be reasonably up to a BF gas flow rate of16000Nm3/h (which was the designed capacity).

However, because of the high flue gas vol-ume described earlier, the maximum flow rateof BF-gas was restricted to half the designvalue, ie 8000Nm3/h through all six new burn-ers and CO gas firing maintained at4000Nm3/h and without any coal firing. Steamwas produced at a rate of 100t/h as comparedto 90-95t/h using the earlier BF-gas burners.

the same as that of the existing BF-gas burner.– The refractory embrasure, which requires

frequent maintenance and caused damage to the burner front, would be removed or simplified.

– BF-gas connection to the new burner to be taken from the existing BF-gas header pro-vided on both sides of the boiler.

– The air connection to the new burner to betaken from the existing combustion air header provided on both sides of the boiler.

– A circular cross section air connection to beprovided instead of the existing rectangularair connection for better control of air flow rate to the burner.

– The burner capacity should be about 16000Nm3/h.

High capacity BF-gas burner designTo obtain a stable flame using a low calorificvalue gas[1,2,3], such as BF-gas, the mixing ofthe fuel gas with the combustion air or oxygenis of paramount importance. Normally this isachieved by increasing the rate of combustion,which is governed by the rate of mixing of thegas and combustion air.

In most burners used in boilers, inter mixingof gas and combustion air is facilitated by tan-gential entry of air or/and gas streams to theburner. In some cases, swirlers are used in airor/and gas passages to facilitate rapid mixing.

In both such cases, air or gas flow is madeturbulent in the burner nozzle by impartingswirling/ whirling motion to the gas or airstream. In addition to this, the combustion airis sent to the burner in separate streams – pri-mary air, secondary air, tertiary air etc toachieve better mixing between gas and airstreams.

The curved or spiral route, followed by theair or gas stream causes higher hydraulic resist-ance to the gas or air route compared to astraight route and hence requires higher gas orair pressure for sufficient flow.

An alternative way to improve mixing is byincreasing the interfacial area between the fuelgas and air streams. Usually, this is accom-plished by sending the gas and/or air streamthrough multiple nozzles.

Considering the above technical reasons andthe low combustion air pressure available (~50mmWG), as well as site requirements, it wasdecided to design a burner where fast and thor-ough mixing of BF-gas and air streams wouldbe accomplished by creating a large interfacialarea of contact between the gas and air.

The new BF-gas burner comprises a gas dis-tributor to split the BF-gas stream into multiple(12 in each part) rectangular and identical BF-gas streams in both part-A and part-B of theburner. The 12 gas slots of each part arearranged in four columns and three rows andcombustion air surrounds each gas stream. Asketch of the burner assembly for a low calorif-ic value (CV) BF-gas burner is shown in Fig 3and a photograph of part-A of a fabricatedburner nozzle is shown in Fig 4.

Burner design parametersThe following parameters are used in the newburner design:

– Blast furnace gas burning capacity: 16000Nm3/h (approx).

– Minimum BF gas pressure requirement for burner operation: 300mmWC near burner.

– Calorific value of Blast Furnace gas: 780kcal/Nm3 (approx).

Ironmaking


PART AFlames from individual slot

Refractory slots closed

Flam

es t

hrou

gh s

lots

PART B

Fig 4 New BF-gas burner nozzle – Part Aready for installation

Fig 5 The existing burner ports were modi-fied for the new burners by sealing the low-est most row and one vertical column foreach burner part

power gen_Layout 1 4/4/12 8:44 AM Page 2

The increase in steam productionwas due to the elimination of flameleakage through the joints anddamaged to the earlier refractoryembrasure in front of the formerBF-gas burners. The increase inBF-gas consumption also enabledmore steam to be produced.

BF-gas firing along with pul-verised coal firing has achievedsteam generation capacity of above120t/h.

The increase in resistance in theflue gas exit system was found to bedue to the blanking off of damagedflue gas tubes in the 20 year old airpre-heater during an earlier capitalshut down. Actions have been initi-ated to replace the air pre-heaterand it is estimated that BF-gas fir-ing at a rate of 90 000Nm3/h will bepossible on a continuous basis oncethe air pre-heater is replaced.

BenefitsThe avoidance of any refractoryembrasure to mix the gases in thenew BF-gas burners has resulted inthe following benefits in boiler #3of PP-I:

– Eliminated refractory embra-sure and hence its mainte-nance.

– Eliminated flame leakage through the joints between burner and refractory embra-sure and safety hazards.

– Ensured consistency in BF-gas flow through BF burners.

– Eliminated damage of burner front, outer metallic shell and reduced maintenance of burnerand thereby improved burneravailability.

– Ensured consistency in BF-gas flow through BF burners.

– Increased BF-gas firing rate by 6000Nm3/h thereby replacing the equivalent quantity of pur-chased coal (7200t/y).

– Increased space between adja-cent boilers by more than 1.1m.

– Eased operation and control ofBF-gas flow through the new burners.

– Resulted in an annual saving ofpurchase

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