Placing the order for the 1,000,000 t/year minimill marks the kick-off for a modern steelmaking and long-product manufacturing complex in the Feni District in south-eastern Bangladesh. The entire minimill will be supplied by Danieli and be based on the Danieli Digimelter Q-One technology.
United Steel Mills Limited (USML) is part of the Bangladeshi Unitex Group, which started as a garment and yarn spinning business in the early 1990ies. Since then, the Group has evolved into a diversified conglomerate of companies, including USML, which was established in 2020.
The new green-field project will use latest melting and rolling equipment for the planned production of rebar, high-grade angle and channel sections, as well as tee sections and spring flats.
Unitex Steel expects to start producing steel and rolled long products in Q4 of 2024
Latest technology along the entire process chain
Danieli will supply equipment and systems for the entire process chain from steelmaking in the electric arc furnace (EAF), continuous billet casting, billet reheating, merchant bar and section rolling to product cooling and finishing.
Resource and energy-efficient electric steelmaking
The 100-t-capacity Digimelter electric arc furnace will feature a full line of efficiency-enhancing and resource-saving features, such a Q-One power converter designed to minimize network disturbances, reduce wear of the EAF components and decrease electrode consumption. This is achieved by separating the working environment of the furnace from the feeding network. Additional energy-saving potential is provided by the use of scrap preheating and continuous scrap charging.
The continuous casting plant
A 9-meter-radius, four-strand caster will be provided to process the steel into billets. From there, the billets, made of a wide range of low- to medium-carbon steel grades, will be hot-charged into a Danieli Centro Combustion reheating furnace. This walking-beam furnace will be designed to process up to 150 tonnes of billets per hour. The furnace will be supplied to the construction site prefabricated and with the refractory lining installed. This will reduce the time necessary to set up the furnace at the Unitex Steel construction site.
The rolling mill
Rolling of the intended wide range of long products will be performed in a highly flexible merchant mill. The mill gets its flexibility, among others, from its stand arrangement: 18 horizontal, vertical and convertible H/V stands. Multi-slitting to produce small-diameter deformed rounds will be possible with up to six strands. Downstream of the rolling mills, the products will run onto a cooling bed of 90 m length equipped with extra water-spray cooling.
E&A for smooth and efficient processes
Latest electrical and automation systems to ensure smooth and efficient operation will be provided by Danieli Automation. The range of electrical supplies will include all power distribution equipment, the process control systems, and automation equipment for Level 1 and Level 2.
