May 10 2008
Siemens Metals Technologies has received an order from Pohang Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (Posco) to supply special equipment, drives and the automation system for a cold-strip annealing, pickling and finishing line at the company's Pohang plant. The volume of the project is in the two-digit million Euro range.
The new equipment is intended for the processing of stainless steel strips and is scheduled to start production in the middle of 2009.
Turning out around 30 million metric tons of crude steel, Posco is the leading producer in Korea. The company operates two integrated production facilities in Pohang and Gwangyang. The production of stainless steel is concentrated at the Pohang location. In the course of expanding its production capacities, Posco is building a cold-strip annealing, pickling and finishing line, designed for the annual processing of around 400,000 metric tons of austenitic and ferritic steel grades. The new line will be able to process cold strip with widths of between 600 and 1350 millimeters and thicknesses of 0.3 to three millimeters. The process speed will be up to 150 meters per minute.
For the new processing line, Siemens is designing and engineering special equipment, including the skin-pass mill, the tension leveler and the side-trim shears, which will be manufactured at the Montbrison facility in France. The scope of supply also includes 270 speed-controlled AC drives, the automation as well as the operator control and visualization system. All the components are part of the Siroll PL solution platform for strip processing lines. Siemens is also responsible for supervision of the installation work and for commissioning.
One of the main reasons for Siemens winning the order was Posco's good experience with the APL 3 processing line which was also equipped by Siemens back in 2003.
Posted May 9th,2008