Posted on 03 Apr 2019
Esfahan Steel (Esco) is in the final stages of upgrading its continuous billet caster no.7 that will increase the unit’s production capacity by 200,000 tonnes/year to 800,000 t/y, Kallanish learns from the Iranian steelmaker.
The firm says the revamp will also improve quality of billet for export, increase casting speed, and reduce the cost of future maintenance. Esco also plans to start the modernisation of billet caster no.8 in the first half of the new Iranian year through 19 March 2020. The casters can handle over 3 million tonnes/year of liquid steel, a tonnage that Esco plans to produce this year.
Esco commissioned its newest continuous billet caster, no.5, in 2016 and that took overall production capacity of the semi to 3.6m t/y. The firm has for some time been mulling the restart of blast furnace no.1 to enable pig iron production to ramp up to near its full 3.6m t/y capacity. However, this has been delayed by liquidity issues.
