1.4.2005
In line with the accession treaty between the Czech Republic and the European Union, VÍTKOVICE STEEL made an undertaking to modernize the company’s secondary metallurgy plant. Therefore, today after long and demanding negotiations, the company concluded a contract with the major contractor of the works, i.e. VÍTKOVICE, a. s.
The objective of this investment is to keep the required viability of the company and competitive ability of VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s., in sales of plates on the domestic and foreign markets in the horizon of the next 10 – 15 years. Another objective is to make the technological flow of the steel plant more efficient, to expand production of top quality steel grades (suitable for example for production of high pressure piping used in non-standard conditions), and last but not least improving the impact of steel production to the environment.
This year, VÍTKOVICE STEEL will invest to the construction of ISSM approximately 270 million CZK from its own resources, which is about one third of the total investment costs. With respect to the fact that the new plant will substantially improve the efficiency of Steel Plant I, the company management assumes that the payback period with the least favorable conditions on the market will be up to 4.5 years. However, referring to the present positive situation on the steel market in general and in line with the marketing plans of the company, the expected payback period is much shorter.
„More and more the priority is given to production of high-quality steel grades custom-tailored as per the wishes of the individual customers. Therefore I think it is inevitable to commence one of the most important investment projects – construction of a new plant for Integrated System of Secondary Metallurgy (ISSM) in Steel Plant I as soon as possible“ said Vladimír Bail, Chairman of the Board of Directors and CEO, VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s. In connection with the beginning of the modernization of Steel Plant I, VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s. already received building permit for the construction of ISSM. Since February of the last year, the company has also been an owner of an integrated permission issued by the Regional Authority for this investment project which was the first integrated permission issued in the Czech Republic for the steel sector area. Currently, project documentation under the supervision of the system integrator, i.e. Hutní projekt Ostrava who will ensure coordination of the entire project is being prepared. This work will take approximately six months, however, the stage of various relocations of piping, energy mains and preparation of the site will start after two months.
„Modernization of secondary metallurgy in Steel Plant I is a key technical step. We can compare it for example to the migration from tandem furnaces to the converter or to the migration from ingot casting to the continuous caster,“ said Mr. Ivan Harazím, technical director of VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s. when commenting on the state-of-the-art technical level of ISSM. “The key feature of the modernization will be an erection of a two-post ISSM, which will enable vacuum degassing, reheating with the use of chemical reaction, decarburization, desulphurization, removal of non-metallic inclusions and chemical composition treatment of liquid steel, all of this simultaneously in two casting ladles. One of the important factors of making the steel production more efficient will be also a change of the volume of casting ladles from the current 72 to 80 t of liquid steel. This change will call for adaptation and amendment of ancillary equipment of the steel plant. The result will be steel with absolutely the best quality and purity,” added Harazím. The construction of ISSM will not be a green field construction and the modernization will be carried out under the full operation of the Steel Plant. Several-day shut downs are expected only at the end of the project – during the commissioning of the plant into pilot operation, which is expected not later than in 2006.
According to the contracting party represented by Jan Svetlík, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of VÍTKOVICE, the job order for ISSM is an important reference for the contractor. ”The contract for the investment worth more than three quarters of a billion Czech crowns is without any doubts the most important contract in the Moravian and Silesian Region. For Vítkovice the contract will have two effects. First, it is really an important job order for a modern technological plant which we would like to build not only in the Czech Republic, but also for example in Ukraine, Russia and Poland. And second, production of top quality steel from the new ISSM technology can be used into great extent for our production of machine engineering units which require high quality plates,“ said J. Svetlík. He added that his company is no newcomer in supplies of ISSM technology because one such plant has been working in Poland in Huta Czenstochowa since the second half of 1990s. And furthermore, VÍTKOVICE is expecting that demand for this type of steel technology will be growing in the coming years.
