AO Steel Works Balakovo Orders Danieli Minimill for Rails, Beams & Sections

Russian AO Steel Works Balakovo selected Danieli, a Metal-Expo regular exhibitor, for the supply of its new long product minimill to be installed in Balakovo, Saratov region. Balakovo Steel Factory is one of the assets of Novostal-M steel holding, a Metal-Expo regular exhibitor.. 

Intended to supply the Russian and international markets, the new minimill will produce 1.46-Mtpy of quality billets, blooms and beam blanks, and 1.0-Mtpy of beams up-to-700-mm beams, U-pile up to 600 mm, Z-section and rails up to 150 m, plus a wide range of profiles.

A single-bay meltshop with an ultra-modern EAF operated by Q-MELT automatic furnace suite to melt scrap, HBI and pig iron, to be refined by a twin ladle furnace and a twin-tank vacuum degasser, ensuring the desired metallurgical properties, productivity and operational flexibility.

Featuring Danieli FastCast cube oscillator with Hy-power drive, mould stirrers and dynamic soft reduction with liquid pool control for rail steel grades, the caster will be connected to the rolling mill for hot charging whilst slow cooling pits are foreseen for blooms and rail applications.

A Danieli Centro Combustion 280-tph, walking-beam reheating furnace, equipped with ultra-low emission burners will allow future operation with a mixture of natural gas and hydrogen.

The 1+1 reversing breakdown stands followed by the Danieli PSP-Profile Sizing Process will guarantee efficiency, productivity, product quality and minimized OpEx in rolling rails, beams and medium sections.

The in-line Accelerated Cooling Process (AcCP) will reduce the need for alloying elements in beam production, and the RH2 Rail Hardening system will perform quenching on rail heads.

The plant will be completed by a downstream area consisting of jumbo-size straighteners, cutting-to-length equipment, inspection lines, automatic stacking for sections and collecting facilities, as well as a separate rail-finishing area with in-line non-destructive controls.

Above all, an advanced Danieli Automation process control system along with L1, L2 and Q3 Intelligence KPI supervision will run the plant, interacting with the MES Manufacturing Execution System.

Special consideration was paid to the environment in the development of the new plant, to minimize the building footprint and CO2 and dust emissions.

The new minimill is scheduled to start production by 2024.