SMS EAF and caster on the way to Peru

Arequipa, Peru-based Corporación Aceros Arequipa S.A. has placed an order with Germany-based SMS Group for a new electric arc furnace (EAF) mill and billet caster for its steelmaking complex in Pisco, Peru.

The new system has been designed for an annual capacity of 1.2 million tons and will produce billets with sections ranging from 130 to 180 millimeters (5.1 to 7 inches) in thickness. Commissioning is scheduled for early 2020.

SMS Group will supply a 120-ton AC scrap-melting EAF equipped with the firm’s CONDOOR automated slag door and CONSO injection system. Also included is SMS’s AEREG electrode controller, designed to allow more than 180 tons of steel to be produced every hour in a steady and continuous process, according to SMS.

SMS also will supply a ladle furnace, and the mill will be equipped with a gas cleaning plant designed to process more than 2.2 million cubic meters (77.7 million cubic feet) of process gas per hour, with an exhaust hood from SMS Group that allows “the gases produced during furnace charging and tapping to be captured and extracted more effectively.”

SMS Concast, an SMS group company, will supply a continuous billet caster with six strands and a casting radius of nine meters (more than 29 feet), equipped with SMS’s CONVEX mold. A reduction in operating is expected thanks to a direct connection to the rolling mills, says SMS.

SMS Group’s scope of supply includes “basic and detail engineering, supply of all mechanical and electrical components, the entire electrical and automation system including an integrated process control system [that] monitors the steel quality from the scrap yard to the billet storage area, as well as the supervision of erection and commissioning.”

Aceros Arequipa manufactures long and flat steel products, including corrugated iron, wire rod, steel profiles, bars and tubes, as well as steel tools and components for the construction, civil engineering and mining industries. The company supplies South America with its finished steel and products and purchases scrap from South American and North American sources.