GrafTech Refractory Systems Newsletter

We now see signs that the world market is slowly recovering from the financial turmoil and confidence in the future is returning to manufacturers and investors. This period has been tough medicine to Chinese Flag 2

swallow for many. But as we all know, "if it doesn't kill you...", you will surely emerge stronger and more capable! As always, under volatile conditions, there are great opportunities to prepare for growth and take advantage of inevitable and hard-to-predict market changes. In this issue you will read about some of the metal producers that are investing in GrafTech™ linings to prepare for the future. We will tell you about ASA Metals adding capacity and building two new furnaces; as well as Shougang Hebei inspecting the refractories for their new #3 blast furnace. We will share with you details of our GrafTech seminar held in March in Beijing, China.

We've also had several readers express an interest for increased technical content in our Newsletters. Great idea. Let's try that. We will show you methods, based on many decades of experience, on how to dry-out and blow-in your new blast furnace, advice we hope you will find very useful.

How to Dry-Out & Start Up a New Blast Furnace

This link will take you back to school! This important PowerPoint presentation* located at the bottom of our web page will give you a step-by-step review of the reasons why you should always dry-out a new blast furnace hearth lining. Once the dry-out is completed and all equipment is ready for service, it is time to blow-in the blast furnace. It seems every plant has their own peculiarities regarding how to do this. Here is some great advice to guide you, as well as our updated GrafTech Refractory web page.

Shouqian Qianan #3 material inspection in Tennessee

The group from Qianan Iron and Steel (as seen in this photograph) visited Lawrenceburg in March to inspect the refractory material that was being supplied for their new #3 blast furnace. The Shougang owned Shouqian plant is located in Qianan, Hebei province of China. This is the same province in which Shougang is operating the Jingtang plant, the 15,5 m blast furnace we told you about in our March 2007 newsletter. In Qianan, Shouqian is already producing iron in two blast furnaces (both IV. 2 650 m³), both with GrafTech™ HotPressed™ hearth walls. BF #1 was blown-in October 2004, #2 in January 2007. The IV of the new #3 furnace is 4,000 m³, 4 tapholes, hearth diameter 13,5m and a design capacity of 3 million tons. The inspection went very well and the hearth refractories were installed in April.

20 years in China - the GrafTech Blast Furnace Seminar in Beijing

During his employment with Union Carbide/UCAR/GrafTech, Mr. KG Tan was instrumental in introducing the HotPressed™
hearth lining system to the Chinese market.

On March 12,2009, after 20 years and over 50 blast furnace hearth linings delivered, KG delivered the opening speech at the GrafTech seminar held in Beijing, China. More than 40 attendees from 17 Chinese steel plants participated in the discussions and listened to presentations by John Davidson, Fred Rorick, KG Tan, Jan Soonius, Pete Duncanson and Peter Sylven. Issues ranged from blast furnace lining dry-out, start-up, lining thermal monitoring and scull management, best lining installation and supervision practices. A detailed description of the GrafTech™ lining system was also provided.

Should you and your colleagues be interested in GrafTech arranging a seminar at your location to discuss these or related subjects for blast furnaces as well as submerged arc furnaces, please follow this link to submit a request form and we will do our best to accommodate. Audience 2

ASA Metals - 2 new FeCr furnaces in South Africa

ASA Metals (Pty) Ltd is a joint venture between Chinese owned Sinosteel and the Limpopo Economic Development Enterprise of South Africa, and was formally established in February 1997. Dilokong Chrome mine (Pty) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of ASA Metals (Pty) Ltd. Number 1 and 2 smelting furnaces at ASA Metals jointly produce around 130,000 tons of charge chrome annually, while Dilokong Chrome Mine extracts around 60,000 tons of raw chromite to produce around 48,000 tons of chromite ore.
ASA #1 is a 33 MVA Pyromet furnace that had its first major break-out only 8 months after its first start-up in 1999. A conventional insulated refractory lining was decided upon for the repair. This resulted in massive production losses, but luckily no personal injuries. When the furnace was rebuilt during July 2005, it incorporated the GrafTech ChillKote™ technology. A minor tap hole repair was made in early 2008, and the furnace has been showing exceptional lining performance. ASA #2 is a 45 MVA Pyromet furnace installed with a GrafTech ChillKote™ lining during 2004. A planned tap hole repair was done during August 2007, where only minor lining wear was seen. ASA Site

ASA Metals is currently busy with a major expansion project to construct two new 66 MVA charge chrome furnaces. Based on the lining experiences from furnaces #1 and 2, both new furnaces will utilize the GrafTech ChillKote™ technology. The #4 furnace installation was completed early March 2009 and #3 should be completed before the summer. The furnaces are due to start up this fall. Both furnaces are equipped with the Tenova PYROMET Lining Management System to ensure proper thermal lining management. The photo shows the building site located in the Mphumalanga province, 320 km northeast of Johannesburg, South Africa, an area rich in platinum and chrome ore.

Even superior refractory linings need good thermal surveillance

The Lining Management System supplied by Tenova PYROMET is an excellent tool that allows operators to monitor their Tenova PYROMET Photo

GrafTech hearth linings. The system provides useful information regarding refractory thickness and scull formation. Read more about the system here.

We would love to hear from you and receive feedback on how we are doing!

If you have suggestions for articles or information that you would like to see, please feel free to contact us! Also, if you know of someone who would value this information, please forward it on to them!

Sincerely,

$GrafTech Refractory Team$

Your GrafTech Refractory Systems Team

GrafTech, HotPressed, ChillKote, C34, GR37, Grade D, NMA, NMD, SmartRam, and UniGraf are trademarks of GrafTech International Holdings Inc. The information contained in or referred to in this newsletter is based on data believed to be reliable but GrafTech makes no warranties, express or implied, as to its accuracy and assumes no liability arising out of its use.

*This presentation and its guidelines are to be used for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to replace individual assessments. Each plant, blast furnace and operation is unique and adjustments need to be made to suit local conditions. GrafTech makes no warranties, express or implied, as to these guidelines and assumes no liability arising out of its use. The information contained in this presentation should not be used as the sole basis of proper blast furnace procedures. GrafTech's liability to purchasers is expressly limited to the terms and conditions of sale.