ArcelorMittal Tubarão has commissioned Siemens VAI Metals Technologies to renovate blast furnace 1 at its Tubarão Works in Brazil.
The blast furnace has been in use for 26 years and is one of the world’s longest serving.
Siemens will dismantle and rebuild the furnace in a shutdown of 80 days. The contract is worth €10M.
Tubarão’s blast furnace 1 has an internal volume of 4415m3 and its melting cqpacity if 3.3Mt/y, which is about half the company's crude iron production.
The furnace has produced 85Mt of hot metal since it came into operation in November 1983, more than any other blast furnace.
Siemens will be responsible for the basic and detailed engineering, methodology and planning, and for coordinating disassembly, reconstruction and commissioning. A modular project concept will be employed to disassemble and reassemble the blast furnace in large units. This will minimize the length of the shutdown.
ArcelorMittal Tubarão is a subsidiary of the ArcelorMittal Group and, with a capacity of 7.5Mt/y of crude iron, is one of Brazil's largest steelmakers.
The company produces semi-finished products in various grades of steel at its Tubarão works. These are used in the automotive and construction industries, as well as in shipbuilding and pipeline construction.
At the same location, Siemens led the consortium that built the new blast furnace 3, which was fired for the first time in July 2007.
