The SMA Group announced that it has been chosen by Jianlong Beiman Special Steel Co., Ltd., to supply core components for a high-speed, wire rod mill for steel.

A press release said that the customer--based in Qiqihar, the second largest city in China’s Heilongjiang Province—is building a new wire rod mill that will have an annual capacity of 500,000 tons. It will include a 10-stand wire rod finishing block that has been designed for low-temperature rolling to comply with “the high metallurgical requirements of the finished products.” It will deploy a cooling and equalizing loop upstream of the block. The mill will process wire rod from 5.5 to 25 mm, and rebar from 6 to 16 mm, at speeds up to 115 meters per second.

The contract, the release said, also calls for the supply of two cantilever compact roughing stands, the shears upstream of the block and the loop laying head including pinch roll unit. The SMS Group is also supplying the design for the LCC® (Loop Cooling Conveyor) with three-fan technology, as well as the coil handling system. To allow for future expansion of the plant, space will be set aside for additional water boxes and a MEERdrive®PLUS block that will enable the plant to be equipped to handle closer tolerances. Commissioning is scheduled for spring 2019.