Celsa invests further into French plant

Spanish steelmaker Celsa is investing in technology at its French mill in Boucau, near Bayonne. The Celsa France subsidiary placed an order with equipment maker Tenova for the supply of one iEAF technology platform using the NextGen System for the company’s 150-tonne scrap AC top charge furnace.

Tenova will supply NextGen hardware for upstream off-gas measurement that is expected to bring added value to the plant. This “is the first critical step that enables all software solutions, including Mass & Energy balance that is needed for achieving Net Energy and Melting-percent Control with iEAF technology,” Tenova says. “Also included is optical temperature and velocity measurement, HMI for process data, and optimisation support.”

The equipment will become operational in the spring, Kallanish notes.

Celsa France is an electric arc furnace-based plant that produces billet to be re-rolled mostly into finished construction steel products.

In December, the steelmaker started a new bar rolling mill at Boucau. The new mill, into which Celsa invested €65 million ($73m), will diversify its business and produce up to 550,000 tonnes/year of long steel (see Kallanish 30 December 2021).

Natalia Capra France