Electric Furnace To Increase APDR Output

Colombian steelmaker Acerías Paz del Río expects to have completed by year-end the boosting of the electric arc furnace that will allow a 60 percent increase in liquid steel output, APDR president Alberto Hadad told BNamericas.

The idea is not to depend only on the generation of pig iron from the blast furnace as a source of steel production. When the electric furnace is put into operation it will have a second-generation source such as scrap, which will become more important as time goes by, the executive said.

The adjustments will allow scrap to enter into the electric furnace with at least 20 percent of liquid or solid pig iron.

"It will not only depend on scrap but also needs to be complemented with solid or liquid pig iron," Hadad said. "This process is carried out also in other countries with very good results."

The company is also moving forward with heavy earth moving and the structural designs for installing the new scrap shredder to provide raw material to the electric arc furnace and which will be in operations at the end of the fourth quarter of this year, he added.

These adjustments are part of an integral plan of investments of nearly $90 million, which will continue until 2007.

Paz del Río is based in Belencito, Boyacá department, and holds a 14 percent stake in the domestic steel market, accounting for 30 percent of national steel production. BN Americas