News & Press Releases

London, November 17, 2020

In September 2020, the Steel Division of voestalpine, an international steel and technology corporation, awarded Primetals Technologies an order to modernize the basic automation systems of the continuous annealing line 1 (KGL1) in the Linz plant in Austria. The replacement of the now obsolete systems will improve the operational safety and availability of the annealing plant as well as increase personal safety. All the sequence controllers will be modernized, and the KGL1 safety concept will be implemented. The project processing is especially challenging because work can only be executed during the ten- to twelve-day plant shutdowns which only take place about every six months.

London, November 12, 2020

In July 2020, EVRAZ NTMK, a Russian steel producer, awarded Primetals Technologies an order to upgrade process optimization of the four BOF converters in its Nizhnij Tagil plant in Russia. The intelligent software from Primetals Technologies will replace the existing Level 2. Currently, the converter operators frequently have to intervene manually. The new process optimization solution offers dynamic, physical models with greater computational accuracy, and will allow improved converter operation, providing optimal converter production control across all shifts. The standardized mode of operation is expected to be accompanied by a reduction in the quantities of additives used.

London, November 10, 2020

Primetals Technologies has received the final acceptance certificate (FAC) for two semi-automatic horizontal temperature and sample-taking manipulator systems installed at the two BOF converters at the steel plant of Dillinger Hütte (AG der Dillinger Hüttenwerke) in Germany. The aims of this modernization project were to improve operational safety by automating the processes and thus reducing physical presence of operators in potentially hazardous environment as well as to improve availability – up to 98% in three-shift operation and reproducibility of temperature measurements and sample taking. Previously, temperature measurement and sample taking at the two 190-ton-converters were conducted manually.

London, November 05, 2020

Deutsche Bank and Primetals Technologies have reached agreement on the world’s first hedging concept that links currency options to sustainability goals. The framework agreement signed enables Primetals Technologies to hedge its currency risk with FX options with the bank over a period of four years. Should Primetals Technologies fail to meet the agreed sustainability targets, the company must pay a predefined sum to a contractually defined non-governmental organization.

London, November 03, 2020

In August 2020, Primetals Technologies received an order from HBIS Group Handan Iron and Steel to upgrade an existing BOF converter in the steel plant in Handan, China, to a KOBM (“Kombinierter Oxygen Blown Bottom Maxhütte”) converter including the complete automation system. Compared to a BOF converter, the combined blowing from top and bottom in a KOBM converter results in a better bath mixing, and metallurgical reactions are closer to the equilibrium.