Bangkok--1 Feb--Sahaviriya Steel Industries
SSI Teesside plant reaches a big milestone, started warming up hot blast stoves to be ready for subsequent blast furnace blow in, work completed over 90%, good market timing as steel price is in uptrend, aims to capture strong demand in Atlantic and Middle East market, and supply to HRC plant in Thailand to boost high grade products with higher margin.
As an update of the ongoing SSI UK Restart Project to recommission steelmaking operation in Teesside, SSI UK announced today that heating up of the hot blast stoves has now commenced (31 January). The four stoves which are gas heated form an integral part of the blast furnace operation and their function is to heat the blast of air which is blown into the furnace during the iron making process. The gradual heating up of the stoves will take a number of weeks to complete and for them to be brought up to the required working temperature of circa 1200 degrees centigrade.
Phil Dryden, Chief Executive of SSI UK said:
“We have made good progress on the project during January and over 90% of the work is now completed. The heating up of the hot blast stoves is a significant milestone in the programme leading to the restart of operations and I am looking forward to us completing the remaining work over the next few weeks. The finishing line is now in sight and we will announce the blast furnace blow in date within the next few weeks.”
Win Viriyaprapaikit, Group CEO and President of SSI Said:
“This is a major milestone for our group. The current market timing is good as steel price is on the uptrend, which will support this year’s sales plan at both SSI and SSI UK. Steel slab output from SSI Teesside will be partially targeted to serve strong demand in the Atlantic market such as US, Mexico, EU, Mediterranean and Middle East.