Moon Iron & Steel commissions SMS group with the supply of a complete minimill

Oman-based Moon Iron & Steel Co. S.A.O.C. (MISCO) has contracted SMS group (www.sms-group.com) to build a new rebar production minimill. The new steel complex, the first of its kind in the Middle East region, is being built in Sohar Industrial Estate, Sultanate of Oman, and operation will commence in 2018.

The steelworks, featuring a 140-t AC electric arc furnace, a 140-t ladle furnace, and a five-strand continuous billet caster, is able to produce 1.2 million tons per year of billets, out of which 1.1 million tons per year are rolled into rebars from eight to 40 millimeters. The fully-continuous rolling line is equipped with fourteen stands arranged in horizontal and vertical configuration followed by two high-speed finishing blocks with six “V” type mill stands each. The roughing and intermediate trains are designed as HL housingless stands. The “V” blocks are specifically designed for highly efficient and productive finish-rolling of rebars up to 50 meters per second. The high-speed delivery system HSD® enables to roll material at speeds of 41 meters per second.

“Paramount among the requirements were the lowest possible energy consumption as well as minimal emissions”, said Mr. Sasikumar Moorkanat, MISCO CEO. The response to this challenge is SMS group developed CMT® mill (Continuous Mill Technology). CMT® has taken the basic minimill concept one step forward: The direct linking of the rolling mill with the steelworks guarantees short distances.

Rolling takes place without time lag by exploiting the casting heat. CO2-intensive reheating furnaces can be dispensed with. Instead of an oil- or gas-fired furnace, an inductive heating system is employed. This system does not reheat the billets but only equalizes the temperature profile. The induction heater gives you perfect control of the starting temperature for the rolling mill - according to the billet speed. This solution requires much lower investment costs. By eliminating the complete reheating stage, energy costs and the impact on the environment are markedly reduced.

Furthermore, SMS group supply covers also the complete electrical and automation package that includes Level-1 and Level-2 process control. In addition to seamlessly integrating the process functional units, with the implementation of the state-of-the-art process solutions already highlighted, the automation system will allow MISCO to meet all possible market demands with built-in capabilities for plant-wide production planning, scheduling, tracking and reporting.