Gerdau commissions Canadian melt shop upgrade

Brazil-based steelmaker Gerdau has worked with Danieli & C. S.p.A. to complete an electric arc furnace (EAF) mill capacity expansion project in Whitby, Ontario.

Danieli, based in Italy, characterizes the brownfield project as a “smooth handling and startup due to excellent cooperation between [the] Gerdau and Danieli teams.”

The work at the scrap-fed Whitby mill focused on a melt shop capacity increase from 700,000 tons to 1,075,000 tons per year in a first step followed by a further increase to 1.2 million tons per year in a second step by replacing an existing EAF with a Danieli ultra-high power (UHP) FastArc furnace.

"The new, scrap-based FastArc furnace has a nominal tap weight of 137 short tons and features a 6,500 millimeter (mm) diameter lower shell, 610 mm diameter electrodes, a 120 megavolt-amperes transformer and a chemical package," Danieli says.

Other Danieli technology deployed includes a leakage detection system for shell panels, wireless resistance temperature detector (RTD) temperature transmitters and an automatic slag door cleaning ram.

"A new, complete material handling system located outside the main building feeding the ladle furnace, the upgrading of the primary suction of the fume treatment plant and a new material handling system completed the supply," Danieli says.

The Whitby facility produces carbon steel rebar used to reinforce concrete and masonry structures to strengthen and hold the concrete in tension.