Tag Archives: Steel Mill

Teeming ingots

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BGH (Boschgotthardshütte) Freital is a speciality steel mill just outside of Dresden, Germany.
It was founded in 1855 under the name Sächsische Gußstahlfabrik benefited by the local iron ore and coal deposits.
After the second world war it was completly dismantled by the Soviets and rebuilt afterwards now called VEB Edelstahlwerk 8. Mai 1945 (date of the German capitulation).
The mill employed more than 5000 people and used to bet he largest speciality steel producer in the former DDR.
After the German reunification in 1990 the work force succesfully fought for the survival of their steel mill and Freital was privatized by the West German entrepreneur Rüdiger Winterhager from Siegen.

Today BGH Freital produces speciality steel in a 42 ton electric arc furnace and a downstream ladle furnace plus a VOD facility for further steel refining.Casting is done in a continuous horizontal caster or by teeming ingots.
The rolling department includes a blooming mill and a bar and wire rolling mill.
The forging division contains a continuous forging machine and a hammer mill.
BGH Freital employes more than 600 people.

VDM Metals, Unna

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VDM Metals Stahlwerk
One of the lesser-known steel plants is VDM Metal’s melt shop in Unna, Germany.
It was built as a greenfield project in 1972. All smelting activities of Vereinigte Deutsche Metallwerke AG were concentrated there from then on.
In 1989, the Krupp Stahl AG took over VDM. The company became part of ThyssenKrupp in 1999.
Since 2015 VDM is owned by private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg from New York.
VDM Metals Unna  operates a 30t, 15 MVA electric arc furnace, three 16t induction furnaces, a vacuum induction furnace and 3 electroslag remelting ovens.
VDM-Metals specialized in Nickel alloys and special alloyed steels.
Further images.
VDM Metals, Stahlwerk Unna

Store Steel

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The steel works in Store, Slovenia were founded in 1851.In 1875 the mill became part of the Berg- und Hüttenwerk Store and mostly produced casted and forged materials.In 1912 an open hearth steel making shop was installed. In the early 1970ies a new steel mill (60 ton electric arc furnace) and a bar rolling mill where built nearby called Store II. In 1978 open hearth steel making was closed down. In the 1990ies the company was privatized and got it’s new name Store Steel  in 2003.
Main product are steel bars for the automotive industry.
Images on my website now.

A Farewell To Steel Making In Bochum

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A history of more than 170 years of steel making ended in Bochum, Germany in late June when the Nirosta stainless steel plant was closed for good.
The original BOF shop was built in 1957 by the Bochumer Verein to be only the second of it’s kind in Germany.
In 1972, after the closure of the blast furnace site both vessels were transformed into AOD converters and an electric arc furnace was installed in the same building to produce stainless steel.
In 1982 a huge new 135 MVA electric arc melt shop was attached and the old EAF was replaced by a ladle furnace.
I payed the site a final visit before the demolition started.

 

Georgsmarienhütte, Revisited

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The steel mill in Georgsmarienhütte, Germany was founded on local iron ore deposits in 1856.
The first blast furnace was installed in 1858.
In 1885 the plant merged with the nearby steel mill in Osnabrück.
An open hearth shop was built in 1904.
In 1923 the site became part of the Klöckner-Werke AG.
A third blast furnace and a second open hearth shop went into production in 1952.
The bar rolling mill number 6 was comissioned in 1965.
In 1982 a coal based (KS-) converter replaced the last open hearth furnaces.
The Osnabrück site was closed in 1987.
In 1994 the last blast furnace (no. 3) was clsed down and a new 130 ton DC-electric arc furnace replaced the KS-converter.
Further images.

DMKD, Ukraine

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DMKD, Ukraine
The steel plant in Dneprodzerzhinsk was founded in 1887 on the banks of Ukraine’s largest river the
Dnepr supplied with coal from the Donezk bassin and iron ore from Krivoy Rog. The mill was nationalized in 1917 and named after Feliks Dzierżyński (Revolutionary and founder of the Sowjet secret police) in 1925.
Today the plant is privatized and runs four blast furnaces (No. 1/8/9/12) a BOF shop including two 250 ton top blown vessels. Two continuous casters and several rolling mills for railroad axles, rails, billets, tube blanks, medium sections and sheet pile.
Images now at Stahlseite.
DMKD Blast Furnaces

Huta Tadeusz Sendzimira

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Images now at my website.
The ArcelorMittal plant in Nova Huta, a borough of Krakow, Poland was founded in 1949.
The mill was named Huta Lenin and the first iron from blast furnace No.1 was tapped in 1954.In 1955 an open hearth steel making shop was added and in 1956 a hot strip mill started production.
Blast furnaces No.2 and No.3 were completed in 1956 and 1958.
In between 1954-56 four coke oven batteries were built.
In 1961 a fourth blast furnace was added.
In 1966 the BOF melt shop containing two 100 ton vessels (a third vessel was added in 1971) was launched and the new large volume (2000m³) blast furnace No.5 was built.
In 1970 some of the old open hearth furnaces were replaced by two new Tandem furnaces.
In between 1978 and 1998 all BOFs were enlarged to 160 ton capacity.
In 1990 the mill got it’s new name Huta Tadeusz Sendzimira.
In June 1991 the open hearth steel plant was closed down.The Mittal steel group took over the site in 2005.Two years later a new state of the art wide hot strip mill was comissioned.

Four Queens

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Victoria, Anne, Bess and Mary.
Further viewing at Stahlseite.
Tata Steel’s integrated steel plant in Scunthorpe, GB was founded in 1864 under the name Frodingham Iron Works.
Iron was produced from local iron ore deposits since 1865. A Thomas converter steel making shop started it’s production in 1890.
In 1912 Frodingham took over the nearby Appleby Iron Co. (founded in 1874) to form the Appleby Frodingham Steel Co.
This enterprise became part of the United Steel Companies in 1937. In 1939 two new large volume blast furnaces were installed (Mary & Bess). In 1954 Anne and Victoria were added to complete the “Four Queens”.

In 1967 the United Steel Companies became part of the newly founded British Steel Corporation.
The Anchor project (1969-1973), one of the largest investments into the British steel industry ever, brought a new BOF shop, new rolling mills and the Immingham iron ore terminal by the Humber river.
British Steel merged with Koninklijke Hoogovens from the Netherlands to form Corus in 1999. Eigth years later Corus was taken over by the Tata Steel group from India.
Tata Scunthorpe today consists of 4 blast furnaces (three active) a BOF shop containing three 300 ton vessels, a slab caster, a bloom caster and three rolling mills (rails, heavy plate and wire).