Moroccan Steelmaker Adds Value with SMS Siemag Mill and Caster

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--The new steel-making project pipeline in the Middle East and North African (MENA) countries continues to add to the range of products available. It is seen by regional governments as necessary to develop industry away from the traditional hydrocarbon and energy sector.

SMS Siemag (Dusseldorf, Germany) has commissioned an X-melt electric steel-making plant and an X-cast slab caster in Morocco for Maghreb Steel (Casablanca). Othman Benmlih, the general manager of Maghreb Steel, said that the first caster to be installed in the country immediately started producing perfect slabs.

The new plant complex covers a range of products, from liquid steel to final products, and makes major enhancements in capacities and the value-added chain. In the integrate plant design concept, the flow of production splits up downstream of the caster. The slabs can be processed into either steel strip in the company's Steckel rolling mill or plates in the heavy plate mill. The Steckel mill was installed by SMS Siemag in 2010, and the heavy plate mill started operations in October 2011.The annual production of 1 million tons of steel will feed stock to the rolling mill and heavy plate mill. The production covers low- and medium-carbon steel and high-strength, low-alloy steels for export and Maghreb Steel's own demand.

The scope of SMS Siemag's plant supplied to the project included a 120-ton electric arc furnace with modern ARCESS technology, a 120-ton ladle furnace, a gas-cleaning plant, a materials-handling system for alloying agents, and a single-strand slab caster. The electric arc furnaces are optimized for high-efficiency energy use and equipped with future-oriented burner and oxygen injector technology. The design maintains high productivity while keeping production costs low.

The continuous caster produces slabs in widths from 900 mm to 2,150 mm, with a gauge of 200 mm. Among the modules for high-quality production is a hydraulically activated oscillation system and a process model for dynamic solidification control. The scope of supply includes the complete X-Pact electrical and automation package.

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