21.9.2004
By the end of 2007, VÍTKOVICE STEEL should invest over 1 billion crowns into the modernization of its equipment. The company will concentrate these massive investments in the next 3-year period primarily on the modernization of systems in secondary metallurgy. The goal is to sustain the required vitality and competitiveness of VÍTKOVICE STEEL in the sale of thick sheet metal on the domestic and foreign markets, to improve the effectiveness of the steel factory’s technological process flow, the expansion of top quality steel production and finally an improvement of the impact of metallurgical production on the environment.
“Greater priority is continually placed on the production of high-quality steel, custom fitted to the needs of the individual buyers. Therefore, I consider it crucial to launch of the largest and most important investment event within the shortest possible time – the construction of a new, modern Integrated Secondary Metallurgy System (ISMS) at Steel Mill I,” says Vladimír Bail, Chairman of the Board of Directors and General Director of VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a.s. “The ISMS will make the processing of steel far more efficient, will reduce energy input costs and the ecological burden, and will maximally improve the parameters and purity of the produced steel. The present-day key to success is clearly a focus on quality,” adds V. Bail.
“The ISSM will substantially raise the operation efficiency of Steel Mill I. In the company’s investment venture, we anticipate returns on this investment within about 4.5 years, even under the worst case scenario on the metallurgical market,” explains Radim Valas, Member of the Board of Directors and Financial Director of VÍTKOVICE STEEL. “With regards to the current positive situation in the metallurgical industry as a whole, and in connection with the company’s marketing plans, we expect the returns on the invested resources to be much faster.” The core element of the modernization of Steel Mill I will be the construction of a dual-post ISMS, which will enable vacuum degasification, heating using chemical reactions, decarbonisation, desulphurisation, the removal of non-metallic inclusions and the modification of the chemical composition of liquid steel, simultaneously in two casting ladles. VÍTKOVICE STEEL has already obtained a building permit for the construction of the ISMS, and from this February, it also holds an integrated permit from the Regional Bureau for this investment event, the first integrated permit issued in the Czech Republic for metallurgy. The supplier of production equipment will be the company VÍTKOVICE Strojírenství, which fulfilled all of the conditions and requirements, and owns the technological know-how for secondary metallurgical equipment (in the past, it has supplied similar know-how for this type of equipment to the Polish company Huta Czestochowa)
“The modernization of secondary metallurgy is a fundamental technical advance. I would compare it for example to the transition from tandem ovens to converter operation, or the transfer from casting steel ingots to continuous casting,” Ivan Harazím, Technical Director at VÍTKOVICE STEEL, explains the cutting edge technology of the ISSM. “The construction of the ISMS will replace several existing facilities, many will be modernized and several new ones will be added. Through the control systems, the secondary metallurgic equipment will operate in automatic modes in order to ensure the logistics of the entire production process and steel casting. The result will be steel of the highest quality and purity,” adds I. Harazím. The construction of the ISSM will not be a greenfield project; the modernization will take place under full operation of the Steel Mill. A few shutdowns are expected towards the end of the event – during the launch of trial operation on the equipment. This should occur at latest in the year 2006. Apart from the modernization of secondary metallurgy, VÍTKOVICE STEEL is also concentrating investments into raising the effectiveness of TG process dusting, and pursuant to the Act on integrated prevention and the pollution register, the production equipment will be modernized as well based on the BAT technology (best available technology).
