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| First Plant To Produce Ferro-Nickel In China Operates On Substantial Scale |
| = Xin'anjiang Nickel In Hangzhou As A Joint Venture Company With SMSP / New Caledonia |
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In order to play the main role of supporting an expansion of stainless steel production in China, an important subject in 2007 is a power to secure nickel unit. Therefore, a boom, which Chinese enterprises import nickel ores from Philippines, New Caledonia and Indonesia and launch to produce nickel-contained pig iron or low grade ferro-nickel by means of utilizing small blast furnaces or electric furnaces, is coming up from 2006. Among these movements, a producers to produce ferro-nickel on a substantial scale in China has appeared. Namely, Xin'anjiang Nickel is the producer established as a joint venture company by Xin'anjiang Ferro-Alloy Works of China and SMSP of New Caledonia and already launched to produce ferro-nickel on a trial base. Xin'anjiang Ferro-Alloy Works produced previously ferro-chrome but is scheduled to produce hereafter ferro-nickel on a substantial scale by installation of rotary kiln to pretreat nickel ores. The grade of ferro-nickel so far produced by this joint venture company has contained approximately 5% of nickel but this new producer has aimed to elevate nickel content in ferro-nickel to 15% and targeted to produce 2,000 tons per month of ferro-nickel. The plant of Xin'anjiang Nickel has been located in Hangzhou and nickel ores imported into China are discharged at Ningbo port for inland-transportation to the plant. So far 70,000 tons of nickel ore ( laterite ore = 1,062 tons of nickel content on 1.5% nickel base ) were shipped in June of 2006 from New Caledonia to China as a trial lot. For a reference, according to an information from China, about 100,000 tons of nickel ore supposedly arrived at Ningbo port from New Caledonia in November. Xin'anjiang Nickel has possessed five electric furnaces at present, consisting of <> one 4,000 KVA furnace, <> two 6,000 KVA furnaces and <> two 12,500 KVA furnaces. Also, this plant has held a rotary kiln for small electric furnaces at present but is now constructing another rotary kiln for large electric furnaces. The moisture contained in New Caledonian nickel ores is higher than 30% and, in order to remove this higher moisture, it is essential to install a suitable rotary kiln. For a reference, the Government of France and the Government of New Caledonia are now moving to strengthen the regulations for exports of nickel ores from New Caledonia but are in the direction to exclude the joint ventures with nickel mines of New Caledonia from the regulations as mentioned above. |
| last modified : Mon 15 Jan, 2007 [11:06] |
