Austria-based plantmaker Siemens VAI Metals Technologies has announced that it will supply a new compact steelmaking plant with an annual capacity of 1.2 million mt for the Ixtaczoquitlan site, located in Veracruz, of Mexican steelmaker Talleres y Aceros S.A. de C.V. (Tyasa).
The project involves the supply of the new Simetal EAF Quantum electric arc furnace developed by Siemens VAI last year, enabling the Mexican steelmaker to be the first to operate this new kind of furnace. Siemens will also provide secondary steelmaking facilities and a combination continuous caster. The project is scheduled to be completed by the middle of 2013.
The plant will produce killed, low, medium and high-carbon steels to be cast in a six-strand combination continuous caster into billets with cross-sections ranging from 130 x 130 mm to 200 x 200 mm, as well as rough profiles with dimensions of 300 x 200 x 80 mm.
The new plant will increase the steelmaker's production capacity significantly and widen its product range. Tyasa produces around 450,000 mt of billet per year, which are further processed in its own rolling mill to make wire and bar steels, as well as building materials, such as rebars and nails. The total capacity for rolled products is around 700,000 mt per year.