PAKISTAN STEEL INDUSTRY Steel Industry after Pakistan Independence After independence in 1947, it did not take long for Pakistan to come to the realization that progressive industrial and economical development would be impossible without the possession of a self reliant iron and steel making plant. The dependence on imports would cause serious setbacks to the country along with an extortionately high import bill which would be impossible to support. The initial idea for a domestic iron and steel mill was put forward in the first five year plan of Pakistan (1955 - 1960). Debates over the manufacturing process, supply sources of the requisite machinery and raw materials, plant site, domestic ore versus imported ore, ownership pattern, product mix and above all foreign financing credit kept the project on hold for a considerable time.
Transcript
PAKISTAN STEEL INDUSTRY
Steel Industry after Pakistan Independence
After independence in 1947, it did not take long for Pakistan to come to the realization that progressive industrial and economical development would be impossible without the possession of a self reliant iron and steel making plant. The dependence on imports would cause serious setbacks to the country along with an extortionately high import bill which would be impossible to support.
The initial idea for a domestic iron and steel mill was put forward in the first five year plan of Pakistan (1955 - 1960). Debates over the manufacturing process, supply sources of the requisite machinery and raw materials, plant site, domestic ore versus imported ore, ownership pattern, product mix and above all foreign financing credit kept the project on hold for a considerable time.
In 1968 besides other factors, it was considered by the Government of Pakistan that a basic steel industry should be established in the public sector, as public sponsorship of the project would enable integrated development of the steel industry in the country. In light of this, the government decided that the Karachi Steel Project should be sponsored in the public sector for which a separate Corporation under the Companies Act be formed.
Pakistan Steel Mills
In January, 1969, Pakistan Steel concluded an agreement with V/O Tiajproexport of the then USSR for the preparation of a feasibility report into the establishment of a steel mill at Karachi. Subsequently in January, 1971 Pakistan and the USSR signed an agreement under which the latter agreed to provide techno-financial assistance for the construction of a coastal based integrated steel mill at Karachi.
The foundation stone for this gigantic project was laid on the 30th of December, 1973. The mammoth construction and erection work of the integrated steel mill, never experienced before in the country, was carried out by a consortium of Pakistani construction companies under the supervision of Soviet experts.Foundation stone of Pakistan Steel was laid on 30th December, 1973. Pakistan Steel is Pakistan's largest industrial complex, comprising component units numbering more than 20. Pakistan Steel is strategically located 40km south east of Karachi in close vicinity to port Muhammed Bin Qasim. Pakistan Steel is a costal site which lies on the National Highway and is linked to the railway network. Spread overan area of 18,600 acres (29 square miles) with 10,390 acres for the main plant, 8070 acres for the township and 200 acres for the water reservoir.
LOCATION:
Some Facts about Pakistan Steel Mill.
Organization Name: Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PVT) LTD.Foundation Stone: Laid on 30th December, 1973Location: 40 km East of KarachiProduction Capacity: 1.1 Million Ton of Steel Expandable up to 3.0 Million Ton per annum.Main Products: Coke, Pig Iron, Billets, Cold Rolled Sheets, Hot Rolled Sheets, Galvanized Sheets.
Main Units Products EquipmentCoke Oven & By Product Plant
Coke 02 Batteries each contains 49 ovens
Sintering Plant Sinter 02 sinter MachinesIron Making Department Pig Iron 02 Blast Furnaces
Steel Making Plant Cast Bloom, Cast Billet, Cast Slab
Four high reversible machines 01 bell type Annealing furnace
Thermal Power Plant & Turbo Blower Station
Electricity 110 MW 3 Generators of 55 mw each
Iron Ore & Coal Jetty
unloaders having 27.5 ton lifting capacity and 1000 ton/hour unloading capacity
02 unloader which 7km conveyor belt upto plant for dumping through universal machines
Pakistan Steel mills is producing about 1 million ton per year steel where private sector is producing 30 million (including billet, rebars, channel and angle etc) The other requirements are fulfilled with ship breaking and other steel products.
Other Steel Related Development in Pakistan
People steel, Karachi is also one of the founders in steel industry. Now they have Arc and induction furnaces and producing different rolled products.
Now Saudi Arabia has also invested in the Pakistan Steel industry through renown company."Al-Tuwairqi Steel Mills". They are installing the billet caster of about 1 million mt per year.
Pakistan Steel is also utilizing the available deposits of Iron ore in Pakistan with small quantity and after Al-Tuwairqi install their plant, they will use the available deposits of iron ore in Pakistan will also utilize these deposits.
The other private factories are working to utilize the available resources of iron ore in Pakistan and Inshallah very they will provide a better result of it to the Pakistan Steel Industry and the requirement of steel in Pakistan will be fulfilled.
STEEL MELTING PROCESS
Crucible and high-frequency methods
The crucible process has been superseded by the high frequency induction furnace in which the heat is generated in the metal itself by eddy currents induced by a magnetic field set up by an alternating current, which passes round water-cooled coils surrounding the crucible. The eddy currents increase with the square of the frequency, and an input current which alternates from 500 to 2000 hertz is necessary. As the frequency increases, the eddy currents tend to travel nearer and nearer the surface of a charge (i.e. shallow penetration). The heat developed in the charge depends on the cross-sectional area which carries current, and large furnaces use frequencies low enough to get adequate current penetration.
(Figure 1)Furnaces used for making pig iron and steels. RH side of open hearth furnace shows use of oil instead of gas
Automatic circulation of the melt in a vertical direction, due to eddy currents, promotes uniformity of analysis. Contamination by furnace gases is obviated and charges from 1 to 25 tones can be melted with resultant economy. Consequently, these electric furnaces are being used to produce high quality steels, such as steel bars, structure steel, ball bearing, stainless, magnet, die and tool steels.
Electric arc process
The heat required in this process is generated by electric arcs struck between carbon electrodes and the metal bath (Fig. 1). Usually, a charge of graded steel scrap is melted under an oxidising basic slag to remove the phosphorus. The impure slag is removed by tilting the furnace. A second limey slag is used to remove sulphur and to deoxidise the metal in the furnace. This result in a high degree of purification and high quality steel can be made, so long as gas absorption due to excessively high temperatures is avoided. This process is used extensively for making highly alloyed steel such as stainless, heat-resisting and high-speed steels.
Oxygen lancing is often used for removing carbon in the presence of chromium and enables scrap stainless steel to be used. The nitrogen content of steels made by the Bessemer and electric arc processes is about 0,01-0,25% compared with about 0,002-0,008% in open hearth steels.
Acid and basic steels
The remaining methods for making steel do so by removing impurities from pig iron or a mixture of pig iron and steel scrap. The impurities removed, however, depend on whether an acid (siliceous) or basic (limey) slag is used. An acid slag necessitates the use of an acid furnace lining (silica); a basic slag, a basic lining of magnesite or dolomite, with line in the charge. With an acid slag silicon, manganese and carbon only are removed by oxidation, consequently the raw material must not contain phosphorus and sulphur in amounts exceeding those permissible in the finished steel.
(Figure 3). Methods of degassing molten steel
In the basic processes, silicon, manganese, carbon, phosphorus and sulphur can be removed from the charge, but normally the raw material contains low silicon and high phosphorus contents. To remove the phosphorus the bath of metal must be oxidised to a greater extent than in the corresponding acid process, and the final quality of the steel depends very largely on the degree of this oxidation, before deoxidisers-ferro-manganese, ferro-silicon, aluminium-remove the soluble iron oxide and form other insoluble oxides, which produce non-metallic inclusions if they are not removed from the melt:
2Al + 3FeO (soluble) « 3Fe + Al2O3 (solid)
In the acid processes, deoxidation can take place in the furnaces, leaving a reasonable time for the inclusions to rise into the slag and so be removed before casting. Whereas in the basic furnaces, deoxidation is rarely carried out in the presence of the slag, otherwise phosphorus would return to the metal. Deoxidation of the metal frequently takes place in the ladle, leaving only a short time for the deoxidation products to be removed. For these reasons acid steel is considered better than basic for certain purposes, such as large forging ingots and ball bearing steel. The introduction of vacuum degassing hastened the decline of the acid processes.
STATISTICAL DATA
World Steel Production analysis form 1970-2007
Following chart showing steel growth rate in world.
Iron is believed to be the sixth most abundant element in the universe, and the fourth most abundant on earth. The concentration of iron in the various layers in the structure of the Earth ranges from high (probably greater than 80%, perhaps even a nearly pure iron
crystal) at the inner core, to only 5% in the outer crust. Iron is second in abundance to aluminium among the metals and fourth in abundance in the crust. Iron is the most abundant element by mass of our entire planet, making up 35% of the mass of the Earth as a whole.
Steel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.02% and 1.7 or 2.04% by weight (C:1000–10,8.67Fe), depending on grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese and tungsten. iron and steel emissions
• The iron and steel industry accounts for about 19% of final energy use and about a quarter of direct CO2 emissions from the industry sector. The CO2 relevance is high due to a large share of coal in the energy mix.
• The iron and steel industry has achieved significant efficiency improvements in the past twenty-five years. Increased recycling and higher efficiency of energy and materials use have played an important role in this positive development.
• Iron and steel has a complex industrial structure, but only a limited number of processes are applied worldwide. A large share of the differences in energy intensities and CO2 emissions on a plant and country level are explained by variations in the quality of the resources that are used and the cost of energy.
• The efficiency of a plant in the iron and steel industry is closely linked to several elements including technology, plant size and quality of raw materials. This partly explains why the average efficiency of the iron and steel industries in China, India, Ukraine and the Russian Federation are lower than those in OECD countries. These four countries account for nearly half of global iron production and more than half of global CO2 emissions from iron and steel production. Outdated technologies such as open hearth furnaces are still in use in Ukraine and Russia. In India, new, but energy inefficient, technologies such as coal-based direct reduced iron production play an important role. These technologies can take advantage of the local low-quality resources and can be developed on a small scale, but they carry a heavy environmental burden. In China, low energy efficiency is mainly due to a high share of small-scale blast furnaces, limited or inefficient use of residual gases and low quality ore.
• Waste energy recovery in the iron and steel industry tends to be more prevalent in countries with high energy prices, where the waste heat is used for power generation. This includes technology options such as coke dry quenching (CDQ) and top-pressure turbines. CDQ also improves the coke quality, compared to conventional wet quenching technology.
• The identified primary energy savings potential is about 2.3 to 2.9 EJ per year through energy efficiency improvements, e.g. in blast furnace systems and use of best available technology. Other options, for which only qualitative data are available, and the complete recovery of used steel can raise the potential to about 5 EJ per year. The full range of CO2 emissions reductions is estimated to be 220 to 360 Mt CO2 per year. iron and steel emissions, iron and steel
