Arcelor has awarded Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau (VAI) a major contract for the engineering, supply, erection and commissioning of a complete stainless steel plant. The contract was awarded on a process turn-key basis. The new facility, which will be located next to the existing Carlam hot rolling mill in Belgium, will have a design capacity of one million tonnes/year of stainless steel slabs. The new facility will include an electric arc furnace, AOD (argon oxygen decarburization) converter, ladle heating station and continuous slab caster. Environmental facilities, electrical equipment and process automation systems will also be included, and start-up is scheduled within 26 months. Based on the successful recent commissioning of the stainless steelmaking plant at Ugine & ALZ (Arcelor Group) in Genk, Belgium, Arcelor and VAI are continuing their cooperation at Carlam and are together setting new standards in stainless steelmaking technology. The new facility will be operated by Ugine & ALZ under the name Carinox.
