Belo Horizonte & Luxembourg, 16 July 2008. Vallourec & Sumitomo Tubos do Brasil Ltda (VSB), the seamless pipe joint venture of Vallourec and Sumitomo Metals proceed placing orders of plant and equipment for the Greenfield project at Jeceaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The centrepieces of the hot metal base of this plant will be two modern blast furnaces. Seized at 4.8 m hearth diameter each, they will jointly deliver 600,000 tons of hot metal per year to the steelmaking shop.
VSB awarded the contract for the construction of these blast furnaces and important sub-plants to a consortium of the Paul Wurth Group led by Paul Wurth do Brasil Ltda, Belo Horizonte, MG. The order contains: the blast furnaces’ proper with cooling system, refractories (including carbon blocks) and the Single Bell Pressure Top charging system, the stockhouse, cast houses with tapping equipment, hot blast stoves plants, gas cleaning systems as well as slag granulation and dewatering facilities. Stockhouse, blast furnace tops and the casthouse areas are provided with pollution reducing de-dusting and filtering systems. Electric equipment, instrumentation and automation for all mentioned systems are part of the order to the Paul Wurth Group. Further, the application of pulverized coal injection (PCI) technology is foreseen.
Paul Wurth will provide advisory services for erection of the plants and perform supervision of commissioning of all production units under its supply.
The order to Paul Wurth is in line with VSB’s intention to construct a state-of-the-art operation at Jeceaba and acknowledges the value-for-money ratio of a plant designed by the leader in ironmaking technology.
A demanding overall project schedule foresees both blast furnaces to be commissioned by early 2010.PAUL WURTH S.A. • 32, rue d’Alsace • P.O. Box. 2233 • L-1022 Luxembourg
Tel. : (+352) 4970-1 • Fax : (+352) 4970-2209
• www.paulwurth.com