Siemens VAI Metals Technologies received an order from Posco E&C (Posco Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.) for the installation of a new steel mill which will be built at Posco's existing steelmaking facilities in Pohang, Korea. The project includes the engineering and the supply of key components, equipment and systems for two LD (BOF) converters, a twin-station RH degassing plant and two ladle-treatment stations. The new plant, scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2010, will be capable of producing 4.65 million tons of carbon-, alloyed- and special-steel grades per year, 1.3 million tons of which will be cast in an ultra-thick-2-strand-slab caster which Siemens VAI is currently supplying. The slabs will be subsequently rolled to plates for use in, for example, the shipbuilding industry as well as for the construction of pipelines. more

The Siemens Industry Solutions (IS) Division has received an order to supply a new main drive for the finishing stand of ArcelorMittal's plate mill in Galati, Romania. The modernization of the finishing stand is intended to increase the productivity and availability of the rolling mill and lower the maintenance costs. The project is worth several million euros and is scheduled for completion at the end of 2010. In the fall of 2007 Siemens VAI was commissioned by ArcelorMittal to equip the finishing stand with hydraulic cylinders and the associated control systems and to modernize the plate mill's process automation system. more

Siemens VAI Metals Technologies received an order from the Korean steel producer Posco for the installation of a new green-field steel mill at its production site in Gwangyang, Korea. The project scope includes engineering and the supply of key components, systems and technological packages for an LD (BOF) converter, RH degassing plant and slab caster. The project will be implemented in consortium with Posco E&C (Posco Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.) and Poscon – an affiliated company of the automation division of Posco. The first slab is scheduled to be cast on the new caster in May 2010, which will be rolled to plates in a new plate mill also under construction. more

Siemens Water Technologies has entered into a licensing agreement with CSO Technik Ltd. to supply and service the Crown sludge disintegration system in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The U.S. patented cell lysing process eliminates digester foaming, increases gas production by up to 30%, and reduces solids for disposal by 20%. The Crown system complements Siemens’ Dystor dual-membrane gas holder system that captures biogas produced by the anaerobic process. The Crown agreement will round out Siemens’ anaerobic digestion product portfolio, making it a leader in the municipal biogas market in North America. more

Siemens Water Technologies in Singapore has started providing water treatment solutions and services in South East Asia, India and China. “We expand our business network out from Singapore with innovative products, water treatment solutions and operational services in order to reinforce our local presence and our proximity to the customer”, explained Chuck Gordon, CEO of Siemens Water Technologies, to the press in Singapore on Monday. He is expecting “considerable” further growth in the Asia Region thanks to establishing the worldwide R&D Center of Water Technologies in Singapore. “Unlike elsewhere Singapore public authorities and research institutes have proactively identified the urgency of water management and the need for innovative technological solutions and services”, Gordon said. This provides an ideal background for further expansion of business. more

Siemens Water Technologies will develop an innovative seawater desalination technology, which could cut energy consumption by at least 50 percent compared to existing desalination technologies. The development of advanced desalination technology has been awarded a four million SGD research grant from Singapore’s Environment and Water Industry Development Council (EWI). “We truly consider this developing technology a breakthrough in the desalination market — with significant global implications on water resource management and the wider use of desalination in the future,” said Chuck Gordon, CEO of Siemens Water Technologies. more

Siemens Water Technologies and the Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC), a research institute within Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star), have agreed to establish a joint Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Laboratory. Both partners want to research fluid dynamics of water treatment processes to improve efficiency of equipment and treatment technology and reduce lifecycle costs of operation. “Based on these results we are able to develop the next generation of water treatment equipment for industrial and municipal applications”, said Dr Ruediger Knauf, Vice President R&D Siemens Water Technologies. more

Siemens Water Technologies and the Singapore Public Utility Board (PUB) have agreed to cooperate on a full-scale membrane bioreactor testing facility at PUB’s Changi Water Reclamation Plant. The new, 250,000 gpd (1.0 million liter/day) MBR system will treat domestic wastewater and test new innovative design parameters for the Siemens MBR system. PUB will provide the location for the new plant, while Siemens will be responsible for all operation and maintenance aspects of the validation plant. Siemens expects the plant to be in operation for a minimum of five years. more

Siemens VAI Metals Technologies received orders for the replacement of an existing caster with a new high-speed 2-strand slab caster as well as for the supply of a new twin-station RH degassing plant at Posco's Steel Making Plant No. 1 site in Gwangyang, Korea. The project scope includes engineering and the supply of key components, equipment, systems and technological packages. The project will be implemented in consortium with Posco E&C (Posco Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd.). The combined contract value for Siemens is a two-digit million euro figure. The start-up of both plants is scheduled for mid-2009. more

Siemens VAI is reorganizing its Russian business. “The share of Russian value added to our projects in the iron and steel industry will more than treble in the next two years”, Werner Auer, CFO of international plant builder Siemens VAI, announced to the press in Yekaterinburg on Thursday. “By acquiring other companies, establishing joint ventures and using our own resources, we intend to expand our network for engineering, plant and maintenance services in order to be closer to the customer”, said Andreas Lemp, who is responsible for business in the Russian iron and steel industry. Siemens VAI wants to double the number of Russian engineers to around 100 by 2009 and, above all, to increase its local activities in the plant modernization business with electrical and mechanical components, innovative automation solutions and plant upgrades. more

Chinalco Aluminium Co., Ltd., China, has placed orders with Siemens VAI Metals Technologies for two additional finishing stands for the aluminum hot rolling mill of Chinalco Ruimin Co., Ltd. in Mawei, Fuzhou. The extended order has a volume of around 15 million euros and is due to be completed in September 2009. Chinalco had already ordered the supply of the mechanical and electrical equipment of a single stand finishing mill in the fall of 2007. more

The Brazilian company, Companhia Siderúrgica Nacional (CSN), has awarded Siemens VAI Metals Technologies a contract to modernize its five-stand tandem cold rolling mill No. 3 in Volta Redonda. The project also includes replacement of the automation system, renewal of the drive and process equipment as well as modification of the rolling stands, the infeed and outfeed areas and the emulsion cooling systems. The aim is to further improve product quality and to increase output. The modernized plant will start operating in the second half of 2009. more

Three months before the beginning of the 2008 games in Beijing, Siemens Water Technologies has started up a wastewater reuse system at the city’s Beixiaohe wastewater treatment plant. The city will use eco-friendly technologies in water/wastewater management. The goal is to process 90% of the wastewater, with 50% for recycle and reuse. The solution that Siemens provided includes a Memjet Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) system, which treats wastewater for reuse in the Olympic Village central area, fountains and lakes. The treatment system has more than doubled the plant’s capacity, from 40,000 m3/day to 100,000 m3/day. more

The City of Galesburg, Illinois has selected Siemens Water Technologies to provide equipment for a new $17.5M water treatment plant to be located near Oquawka, Illinois. Currently, the city obtains its groundwater from an aquifer near Oquawka, which is located along the Mississippi River. The water is chlorinated and then pumped approximately 56 km (30 miles) to an existing treatment facility in Galesburg. Over time, the high level of chlorine has corroded the pipeline, and sections of it must be replaced. The new plant near Oquawka will allow the water to be treated closer to the source before sending it to Galesburg, thus reducing the amount of chlorine required. The 45-MLD (12-MGD) plant is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2010. more

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the MEMCOR membrane filtration product line of Siemens Water Technologies. These innovative membranes have been installed in thousands of drinking water, wastewater reuse and industrial plants worldwide, offering a sustainable, reliable and cost-effective solution to these plants’ water management needs. more

This year marks the 100th anniversary of one of the most significant public health advancements of the millennium: the introduction of drinking water chlorination on a large scale. In 1908, the Jersey City, New Jersey Water Works became the first U.S. water system to chlorinate on a permanent basis. The practice spread to other areas of the country, virtually eliminating waterborne diseases such as cholera, typhoid, dysentery and hepatitis A. Sodium hypochlorite (chlorine bleach) in the parts-per-million level was added to water to eliminate the micro-organisms that caused the waterborne disease outbreaks. Hypochlorite, however, was not easy to handle, and application at low feed rates was difficult and often unreliable. This problem was solved in 1913 by the Wallace & Tiernan Company with the invention of a chlorine gas feeder they aptly named the chlorinator. more

In June this year, just 10 months after its inauguration, the Arcelor Mittal Group’s hot-rolling mill in Krakow, installed by Siemens VAI Metal Technologies as a turnkey project in a record time of only 23 months, achieved operation at designed capacity. Siemens VAI’s 2nd Media Summit in Krakow saw Volker Schwich, Vice President Projects for Arcelor Mittal Poland, and Kurt Rotert, Vice President Strip Rolling at Siemens VAI, sign the Standard Product Acceptance Certificate (SPAC). “This sort of exceptional performance in the hot-rolling sector can only be achieved through collaboration based on mutual trust and partnership,” says Richard Pfeiffer, CEO of Siemens VAI Metal Technologies. “We are delighted that we have been able to realize this technologically pioneering project in collaboration with Arcelor Mittal.” more

Siemens VAI and the TU Bergakademie Freiberg Technical University for Mining and Technology have formed a cooperation to develop innovative solution concepts for the mine water problem. The research team connects fundamental as well as applied knowledge from laboratory and pilot scale to the scale of mining operations and creates new interfaces between different areas of science that can help to find new solutions for old problems. more

Siemens Metals Technologies received a contract from the Chinese steel producer Maanshan Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (Masteel) to install the first Meros plant outside Europe. The new facility will be built at the No. 1 Sinter Plant of the company's integrated iron and steel works located in Maanshan, Anhui Province, and will be capable of treating approximately 1,000,000 m3 of sinter-offgas per hour. The Meros (Maximized Emission Reduction Of Sintering) dry-cleaning process reduces emissions of dust, heavy metals, sulfur dioxide and organic compounds to levels previously unattained applying conventional technologies. The completion of this project is expected by mid-2009. more

Siemens Metals Technologies has received orders from Wuhan Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (Wisco) to supply a new continuous annealing line and other special equipment for coupled tandem pickling line No. 3 as well as a new hot galvanizing line for the company's Wuhan facility. The total order value is in the two-digit million Euro range. The continuous annealing line is scheduled to start operating at the end of 2009 while the special equipment for the tandem pickling line (PLTCM) is to be delivered by the middle of 2009. In the fall of 2007 Siemens won a contract for equipping the tandem pickling line with mechanical components, automation and drives systems and technological controllers. more