Masteel’s blast furnace A shut down for a major revamp in mid September, which is scheduled to take 90 days.

CISDI has taken on the technological leadership and will supply its critical equipment.

The end of September saw the blast furnace’s lower hearth successfully moved out of position to make way for its replacement.

The 7,786-tonne, 21.7-metre-high piece of hearth was slid 103.35 metres along wide, long and solid slip beams away from the blast furnace proper, creating two records for China’s fast-revamp - the largest and the highest sliding of the old furnace’s lower section.

Blast furnace A had been operating at Masteel since 2007. The plant’s first 4,000-cubic-metre volume furnace, it had produced 44.70 million tonnes of hot metal over the last 14 years and featured a hot metal output of 11,175 tonnes per unit of furnace volume.

The revamp applies an innovative technology achieving bi-segmental sliding movement, the first of its kind for a Chinese blast furnace with a volume of 4,000 cubic metres.

CISDI’s well-prepared team had been able to start designs immediately. Thanks to a 3D coordinated design method, construction designs were completed in just 15 months, half the usual time. This saved costs by reducing the need to re-work steel structures, cables and pipeline designs.

Highly-skilled ironmaking and structural engineers went to site to carry out surveys and discuss specialised solutions with the client and construction team.

Attention was paid to Masteel’s existing production practices and CISDI’s innovative technologies were applied to achieve improvements in the furnace’s campaign, output, energy conservation, consumption reduction, and low-carbon and intelligent operations.

The procurement team relied on a procurement management system to make precise judgments on the lead time of all equipment.

CISDI’s supplies arrived on schedule, and to the right quality standards, well before the furnace shutdown. This was achieved in the face of severe challenges posed by the tight schedule, the pandemic, energy consumption caps and the soaring price of bulk materials.

The new refractory for the furnace proper is now being constructed.

Masteel’s existing blast furnace A before shutdown for its revamp

Blast furnace A’s lower hearth was slid to the designed position