Luxembourg-based blast furnace specialist Paul Wurth has been awarded orders for two new blast furnaces for the Erdemir Group, Turkey’s largest steelmaker, at their Eregli and Iskenderun integrated steel plants. In both cases, one completely new furnace will replace an older production unit, S&P Global Platts learned from a Paul Wurth statement.
At Eregli on Turkey’s northern Black Sea shore, Erdemir’s new BF2 will have a hearth diameter of 10 meters, 24 tuyeres and two tapholes; it will produce 5,000 mt of hot metal per day from an inner volume of 2,188 cm, Wurth said.
At Isdemir in Iskenderun on the Mediterranean Sea, the new BF1 will be sized at 12.5 meters in hearth diameter and 3,587 cm of inner volume. It will be fitted with 32 tuyeres and four tapholes and will produce 7,900 mt daily, which further increases the hot metal capacity at this site, the company noted.
Paul Wurth will execute both projects on an EP basis including the supply of key technological items and related supervision of erection and commissioning.
Project schedules foresee blow-in of the new blast furnaces for March 2021 for Erdemir and May of the same year for Isdemir.
Erdemir will also double its current galvanized sheet production capacity of 330,000 mt/year with the installation of a new coating line in the second quarter, as reported.
The group’s Eregli works produces HRC, CRC and galvanized coils, plate and tinplate. The Isdemir works produces billet, wire rod and HRC.
— Cenk Can
