Dongkuk Steel Starts New Plate Mill Test Run in July

Dongkuk Steel, South Korean major steel maker, starts test run of a new plate mill inside Tangjin iron works at the end of this month. The mill construction completed at over 90%. The firm forecasts new plate mill can start trial production in September ahead of scheduled November. The demand from shipbuilding is low but the firm’s plate order award is recovering due to progress of users’ inventory adjustment. Dongkuk Steel will gain shipbuilding standard for each country and start commercial production at the beginning of 2010.

The new plate mill has the capacity of 1.5 million tonnes per year. The construction reached the finishing stage for heat control equipment and electric system. The firm had scheduled to start trial slab rolling on 20 November but would put ahead the operation in September if the test run would come off well.

Dongkuk Steel operates no.1 plate mill with capacity at 1 million tonnes per year and no.2 plate mill at 1.9 million tonnes inside Pohang works. Total production capacity increases to 4.4 million tonnes by the new plate mill. The firm explained necessary quantities of slab are increasing but the firm can secure enough materials when slab market is weak.