May 17, 2008

ThyssenKrupp BF 1 in Duisburg to restart operation in April

ThyssenKrupp announced that after a record downtime of only 70 days, blast furnace Schwelgern 1 of ThyssenKrupp Steel in Duisburg is expected to begin its fifth campaign at the beginning of April. Built in 1973, the unit was shut down at the end of January after a campaign lasting approximately 12 years.

ThyssenKrupp in a release said that “The unit is now being completely modernized. The inside of the blast furnace is being relined with refractory material 5,500 tonnes of advanced material will be used for this alone. In addition, the furnace cooling system is being upgraded. 1,800 out of a total of 2,100 cooling plates are being replaced and six rows of cooling plates will replace one row of staves to intensify cooling in the bosh.”

The release further added that “In the cast houses, the complete runner system and refractory lining are being replaced. The tap hole equipment is also being overhauled. The refectory lining of the hot blast stoves is being refurbished the screens, controls and extraction lines in the stock house are being modernized. Further repairs and renewals are being carried out on the coal injection system, gas cleaning system, emergency water supply, re-cooling system, slag granulation system as well as the expansion turbine, clarification plant and sludge drying system.”

ThyssenKrupp said that an approximately 300 strong team from ThyssenKrupp Steel is handling this gigantic modernization project with the help of around 100 national and international contractors a significant proportion of the work is being carried out by companies from other segments of the ThyssenKrupp Group. The project was planned down to the last detail over a one and a half year period in order to keep downtime as short as possible. Overall, the upgrade represents an investment of around EUR 150 million and over a tenth of the cost is for additional pollution control equipment. To further improve the environmental situation, a new filter unit was built to collect cast house and stock house dust in 2004.

ThyssenKrupp said that after three and a half decades of production, blast furnace Schwelgern 1 will produce its 100 million tonne of pig iron at the beginning of May 2008 and its currently providing 550 jobs for employees of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG, plus several times that number at outside contractors in the region.