Hyundai Steel Accelerates Downstream Plant Construction for No.2 Blast Furnace

Hyundai Steel of South Korea accelerates the second-phase construction works of the downstream facilities for No.2 blast furnace. The facilities are scheduled to start operations within this year, earlier than previously planned. As to No.3 blast furnace, Hyundai Steel keeps the initial plan unchanged to start the construction after the completion of the second-phase expansion. The firm ramps up the output capacity to 8 million tonnes per year by the second-phase expansion and strengthens the supply power of high grade steel products for Hyundai Motor Group including steel sheet for automobiles and steel plate for shipbuilding.

The progress rate of No.2 blast furnace’s construction is currently 87.5%. No.2 blast furnace has the same shape as No.1 blast furnace and the inner volume is 5,250 cubic meters. The main body of the furnace has already completed. No.2 furnace’s blowing-in is scheduled on November 25th.

As to C hot rolling mill, the progress rate of the construction is presently 67%. This mill is scheduled to start test production on September 16th. The output will become 3.5 million tonnes per year, dedicated to the production of automotive steel sheet mainly for Hyundai Motor. Hyundai Steel produced automotive steel sheet at 700,000 tonnes in 2009 using imported slabs. The firm will finish slab import 6 months later when C hot rolling mill starts operation.

No.1 blast furnace continues operation at 11,000 tonnes per day since March 2010, more than double of the inner volume of the furnace. The production is planned to increase to 11,650 tonnes per day toward the end of June, 2.22 times of the inner volume. The downstream plant of No.1 blast furnace, which started operation in January 2010, is presently under operations of 33-35 charges per day. The operation will be raised to 37 charges.