Indian steelmaker BMM Ispat is expanding production capacity at its Hospet production site in India and has issued a final acceptance certificate (FAC) to Primetals Technologies for the supply and installation of an electric steel plant and merchant bar mill.

BMM Ispat’s key product range is structural steel, including reinforcing steels, round bars, flat and square bars, angles and channel sections. The Hospet plant also processes low and medium-carbon and low-alloy steel grades as well as spring and free cutting steel.

Primetals Technologies engineered and supplied the mechanical and electrical equipment for an electric arc furnace with a tapping weight of 110 metric tons, a 110-ton ladle furnace, a vacuum degassing plant and the alloying and additive systems.

According to Primetals, the electric arc furnace is specially designed for the combined charging of direct-reduced iron (DRI) and hot metal. The electric arc furnace, the ladle furnace, the material charging systems and other auxiliaries are equipped with a dedusting system. A Level 1 automation and process automation (Level 2) systems, furnace transformers and a Static Var Compensator (SVC) were also part of the supply deal.

For the merchant bar mill, Primetals supplied all mechanical and electrical equipment for the rolling line and cooling zone in addition to systems for bundling and tying up the bars produced. The rolling line includes a six-stand roughing mill in an H-V arrangement including the upstream equipment for loading and unloading the billet heating furnace and a six-stand intermediate and eight-stand finishing mill, both in an H-V-C arrangement. The stands of the intermediate and finishing mills are equipped with quick-change fixtures, while after the finishing mill there is also a quenching system. The finishing mill and a 102-metre-long cooling bed are linked by two delivery systems. One is designed as a twin-channel high-speed system achieving speeds of up to 25 metres per second.

The plant’s rolling mill incorporates a finishing shop consisting of machines for straightening, bundling, stacking and strapping the rolling stock. Diverse shear systems along the rolling line and in the cooling zone round off the mechanical equipment.

The scope of supply also included the process automation (level 2), mechatronic components, a motor control centre and speed-controlled drive systems for the main and secondary drives including all motors. Primetals was also responsible for installation, commissioning and training.

BMM Ispat is the second largest steel company in the Indian state of Karnataka in the south of the country. BMM Ispat’s Hospet plant is part of the company’s expansion plans; and the addition of an electric steel plant and bar mill is part of the programme. The company uses iron ore from its own mines in the region.