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| HOME >> Topics List >> March, 2005 >> 15 (Tue) |
| Oman Orders DRI Plant From Kobe Steel Group |
| = First Hot-Link system to be incorporated on the fifth order since Dec. 2004 |
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Midrex Technologies, Inc. in the USA, one of Kobe Steel Group companies, announced it received an order for a 720,000-ton/year MIDREX process DRI manufacturing plant from Shadeed Iron & Steel llc in Oman. The order covers plant design and main equipment supply for a total value of approximately 5.5 billion yen. The Group company has been receiving orders for plants of the kind in a row from Southeast Asian, Russian and Middle Eastern resources rich countries. Order backlogs since December last year count five, amounting to around 60 billion yen. [Incorporation of "Hot Link" system] The plant ordered this time is said to incorporate a world-first system called "Hot-Link" that feeds hot DRI directly into EAF by gravity. It allows to mitigate thermal losses so that necessary electric power required for EAF operation (600 kw/h per ton of molten pig iron) is reduced to three quarters (450 kw/h), while electrode consumption is largely lowered as well. Much should be expected of the system in forthcoming businesses as an energy saving and environment burden reducing innovative technology, according to the Group. [Shadeel Iron & Steel] This company was incorporated in the Sultanate of Oman as a subsidiary steel producing company of Al Ghaith Holding Company which is headquartered in the United Arab Emirates and widely operating construction, engineering, and petroleum related businesses. With investment amounting to about US$350 million, the company is aiming to build an EAF and a continuous casting machine on top of the DRI plant by late 2007, to output about 500,000 tons of billets and some 220,000 tons of hot briquetted iron (HBI) per annum, for sale to outside markets in the Gulf, South Asia and Southeast Asia besides its home market. Shadeed Iron & Steel's head office is in Muscat city, Oman; plant site is in Sohar Industrial Park (200 km northwest of Oman city); contract signing: Feb. 27, 2005; scheduled start-up of operation late 2007; targeted products lineup: HBI and billets; main production facilities EAF (500,000 t/y), refining plant, and billet continuous casting machine (500,000 t/y), etc. [Five order received in three months] Kobe Steel Group (Kobe Steel itself and Midrex Technologies) have received five orders for MIDREX process DRI plants during three months since December 2004 for a total amount of 60 billion yen. All the plants are going to be gas-based ones. Inquires for plants of its kind are increasing in a row from gas affluent countries, with soaring petroleum prices and increasing demand in the Middle East for construction materials related to the Iraqi restoration in the background. |
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| last modified : Fri 18 Mar, 2005 [10:13] |
