Stomana III

completed

Stomana is part of SIDENOR, the steel production arm of the Viohalco Group, the leading metal processing conglomerate in Greece. Stomana’s steel mini-mill is located in Pernik, approximately 20 km south-west of Sofia, in an area of approximately 300 hectares with a total covered surface of 28.5 hectares including a scrap-yard, a steelmaking facility (melt-shop), two long products rolling mills, a flat products mill, a grinding balls plant, a cold finishing plant, and a concrete reinforcing mesh and steel cages plant. The covered scrap-yard is equipped with electromagnetic cranes, scrap shredder, scrap bucket transfer cars, and a road and rail network. The steelmaking facility includes two EAFs and ladle furnaces, a slab caster and a billet caster. The new rolling mill facility for long products (reinforcing bars or rebars, merchant and round bars, and wire rod) has been operational since 2008 and is equipped with reheating furnaces, roughing, intermediate and finishing stands, cooling bed and finishing facilities. The flat products facility was revamped in 2009 and is equipped with reheating furnaces, universal rolling stand, two leveling machines, and two cooling beds. The older long products mill produces merchant and round bars and is equipped with reheating furnaces, roughing, intermediate and finishing stands, circular saws, cooling beds, and straightening machine. The project entails an investment targeted towards (i) the company's capital expenditures mainly associated with the EAF3 revamping at the steelmaking plant, and (ii) financial support to the company’s recovery after the severe downturn in the steel industry that started in 2008 and lasted through 2009. The EAF3 revamping has an estimated cost of €23 million and includes the following components: - Installation of a new furnace of the same capacity (100 tons), but with different tapping method (eccentric bottom tapping instead of spout). New oxygen and carbon injectors will be added in order to increase the chemical input in the furnace. Auxiliaries such as hydraulics (cylinders, valve stands etc.) and electrics (switchgears, panels, motors etc) will be also replaced, resulting into a more efficient operation with shorter tap to tap times and optimized energy input; - Installation of an additional state of the art off-gas treatment plant (Bag House 3) with increased canopy hood volume; - Installation of a new additives (ferroalloys addition) plant; - Installation of new scrap transportation system from the scrap-yard to the melt-shop, including scrap bucket cars and rotating platform system; - Revamping of existing cranes serving the melt-shop bay (charging and teeming); - Revamping of existing water treatment plant, in order to meet the new production demands. The revamping of the EAF3 will allow reducing the energy needed for scrap melting as well as off-gases emitted to the atmosphere.