The successful start-up of the first blast furnace at ASSB’s Malaysia plant puts it well on track to becoming the most competitive steel producer on the Belt and Road Initiative routes.

Phase I of the ASSB Plant will produce 3.50 million tonnes of high-end wire rods, bars and H sections for the ASEAN and surrounding markets.

 As the ASSB production base takes shape, ten thousands of local jobs are expected to be created, boosting the regional economy. It is also hoped that ASSB’s presence will attract other enterprises to the Belt and Road routes and bolster the region’s service and supply industry.

CISDI, ASSB’s most relied-upon contractor, has undertaken the master plan, plant design, procurement and equipment management and package supply of the plant’s stockyard, blast furnace, BOF, caster and rolling mill, in addition to the EPC-based construction of the reheating furnaces.

Blast Furnace 1 was successfully started up on June 6 and hot metal was tapped and transported via a ladle car to the steelmaking workshop for smelting out the first heat.

The first billet cast by Continuous Caster 2 was of good surface quality and ASSB reports that main production equipment is running smoothly.

The production chain from Blast Furnace 1 to BOF 1 and Caster 2 marks the build completion of all units supplied by CISDI on an EP basis. The whole line now enters pilot production stage.

 Ironmaking plant

CISDI has designed and integrated ASSB’s blast furnace-related process and core equipment using its patented technologies for efficiency and reducing energy consumption.

Its two blast furnaces will be the biggest and most advanced in Malaysia.  Each will have a volume of 1,080 cubic metres and achieve an annual hot metal production of 2.53 million tonnes.

The blast furnaces feature CISDI’s IIPR-based no-bell top control expertise, top-combustion stoves, hearth and stack long-campaign technology, compact one-ladle hot metal transfer technology, shared casthouse and highly-efficient bottom-filtering slag granulation technology.

Steelmaking plant

Having designed and built over 100 BOFs for steelmaking clients, CISDI used its vast range of experience to ensure dramatically improved efficiency, guaranteed equipment performance and a well-run project schedule at ASSB.

Applications include CISDI’s self-adaptive constraint system (SACS) 4-Point Linkage Suspension System. It enjoys the advantages in absorbing a large degree of deformation, light weight of the facilities, simple structures, and easy maintenance.

Continuous casting plant

The hot-commissioned caster 2 is a seven-strand billet caster which adopts a hot-charge process.

Billet is cut at a high temperature and charged into the hot mill by the high-speed roller table, which means it does not need to be reheated by the reheating furnace. This direct hot charge and rolling process reduces heat loss.

Other installations which ensure a high degree of automation level, improved safety and product quality include tundish continuous temperature measurement, automatic control of the mould level, automatic addition of mould’s protective slag, secondary cooling automatic control and strand’s surface temperature measurement.

An aerial view of the ASSB Plant in Malaysia shows its Production Chain Line 1 in development

The blast furnace plant at ASSB

The first heat of liquid steel is produced

Qualified billets being cast