News & Press Releases

London, February 02, 2022

Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) held its sixth annual best supplier competition and recognized its most reliable supply chain partners.  MMK's management places great value in this competition since relations with suppliers are one of the key factors for successful future development.  An honorary diploma in the category "Leader of Environmental Solutions in Metallurgy" was awarded to Primetals Technologies, for supplying a secondary dedusting system for the BOF melt shop.  The award was presented during a gala event, where Pavel Shilyaev, MMK CEO, thanked the winners for their cooperation. Primetals Technologies is proud to be honored as one of the selected suppliers. Wilhelm Fingerhut, Vice President Environmental Solutions, received the prize: “We would like to thank the MMK management and the project team for their excellent cooperation and this gesture of appreciation inspires and motivates us further. We will continue to complete projects together and ensure that we live up to this award.”

London, January 24, 2022

Indian steelmaker JSW Vijayanagar Metallics Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of JSW Steel Ltd (JSW Steel), has placed an order with Primetals Technologies to supply equipment for its new Steel Melt Shop No. 4 in Vijayanagar, Toranagallu. The order includes two BOF(LD)-converters, two ladle furnaces, gas cleaning and dedusting systems, two slab casters as well as level 1 and level 2 automation systems. The new melt shop has a design capacity of 5 million metric tons per year and will mainly produce high-quality carbon steel. It is part of a major project of JSW Steel to expand its JSW Steel Vijayanagar Works facility’s production capacity. Primetals Technologies will be responsible for engineering, supply of equipment, and advisory services for erection and commissioning.

London, December 07, 2021

In early November, a KOBM converter, upgraded from a former BOF converter by Primetals Technologies, was started up in the steel plant of HBIS Group Handan Iron and Steel in Handan, China. Compared to a BOF converter, the combined blowing from top and bottom in a KOBM converter results in a better bath mixing and metallurgical reactions are closer to the equilibrium. In addition, lime injection ensures fast slag formation and excellent process and slopping control. Therefore, this process is expected to shorten the blowing process, to lower the carbon-oxygen equilibrium of the steel at tapping, improve the yield by lowering slag amount and iron oxide content in the slag, and to produce cleaner steel with minimum inclusions and impurities. The improved steel quality especially fits requirements from the automotive industry. Furthermore, the new converter has the potential to save ladle additions during tapping as well as costs for lime additions.

London, June 10, 2021

In April, Bosnian steel producer ArcelorMittal Zenica d.o.o. placed an order with Primetals Technologies to replace the vessel of BOF converter #2 and supply associated equipment. An optimized design will increase the vessel volume and make production easier. The well-proven Vaicon Link 2.0 suspension system eliminates maintenance requirements. A new design of the exchangeable bottom ensures reliable sealing and minimizes the risk for leakages. The converter replacement will be executed in an open consortium with the experienced Serbian company GrappS d.o.o. as installation partner. Start-up of the converter is expected by end of 2022.

London, April 01, 2021

Primetals Technologies replaced the LD (BOF) converter no. 2 at the Smederevo production location of the steel producer HBIS Group Serbia Iron & Steel LLC (HBIS Serbia) which went on stream in the beginning of November. In the meantime, the new converter has passed all the performance tests and received its PAC. The purpose of the project was to optimize the process and increase production capacity. This was achieved by a bundle of measures including increasing the volume of the converter vessel to 0.9 cubic meters per metric ton and installing a bottom-stirring system. The critical external dimensions remained unchanged, so the interfaces to the adjacent equipment could be retained. Nor was it necessary to modify the converter foundations or make structural changes to the converter platforms. The new converter has a tapping weight of 105 metric tons. It is equipped with a maintenance-free Vaicon Link 2.0 suspension system, new tilting drive, new bottom-stirring system, "dart" machine for slag retention, slag-splashing technology, and a new automation system.