wiredInUSA April 2018

Chinese mill contract

Strategic appointments

Dirk Steinbrink

Vincent Dessale

The SMS grouphas been chosenby Jianlong Beiman Special Steel Co Ltd to supply core components for a high speed steel wire rod mill. A press release said that the Chinese customer, based in Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, is building a new wire rod mill that will haveanannual capacityof 500,000 tons. It will include a ten-stand wire rod finishing block, designed for low temperature rolling to comply with “the high metallurgical requirements of the finished products”. It will deploy a cooling and equalizing loop upstream of the block. The mill will process wire rod from 5.5mm to 25mm, and rebar from 6mm to 16mm, at speeds up to 115m per second. The release said that the contract also calls for the supply of two cantilever compact roughing stands, the shears to be upstream of the block, and the loop laying head to include a pinch roll unit. The SMS group is also supplying the design for the LCC ® (loop cooling conveyor) with three-fan technology, as well as the coil handling system. To allow for future expansion of the plant, space will be set aside for additional water boxes and a MEERdrive ® Plus block that will enable the plant to be equipped to handle closer tolerances. Commissioning is scheduled for spring 2019.

Nexans has appointed its first chief technical officer at management board level. Stepping into the newly created role is Dirk Steinbrink, previously senior executive vice president for Nexans’ high voltage and underwater cable business group. Vincent Dessale has been appointed to the Nexans board as senior executive vice president for its subsea and land systems business group. Nexans has developed its Paced for Growth strategy to become a leader in advanced cabling and connectivity solutions, and to expand beyond existing Nexans products and solutions. Steinbrink’s appointment is in line with the strategy emphasis on innovation. In his role Mr Steinbrink will supervise the Nexans technology and innovation group function, as well as acceleration units focused on the development of promising business opportunities, such as the Internet of Things, smart cities and e-mobility. Mr Dessale will lead the newly created Nexans subsea and land systems business group,withthemissiontohelpcustomers find the right cable system solution to address their efficiency and reliability challenges as well as to support them from the beginning of a project (design, engineering, funding, asset management) to the end (system management).

wiredInUSA - April 2018

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