wiredinUSA September 2013

INDEX

Siemens Metals Technologies has installed a continuous bloom caster at Chinese steel producer Changzhou Zhongtian Iron & Steel (Zenith Steel). The plant has an annual production capacity of around 1.3 million metric tons of blooms. Zenith Steel produces a wide range of end products, including steel pipes, bearing and spring steels, and a range of structural steels. Zenith Steel is privately owned and runs an integrated iron and steel works in Changzhou, Jiangsu province. The company's steel works has three BOF (LD) converters with a production capacity of 10 million metric tons of steel per year. The five-strand casting plant built by Siemens is designed to produce round blooms with diameters ranging from 360 to 600 millimeters. It can cast structural steels, high-carbon, alloyed and low-alloyed steels, as well as pipe steel grades, at a speed of up to 0.8 meters a minute. The continuous casting plant has a machine radius of 14 meters and a metallurgical length of 32 meters. Caster goes on stream at Zenith

German cable and wire maker Leoni AG has recorded a raised sales forecast, following higher than anticipated demand from the car industry. The company is predicting that 2013 sales will reach approximately €3.8 billion, compared with an earlier forecast of €3.7 billion. Leoni is benefitting from the expansion of the car industry in China and the US, while sales in Europe are “significantly” down, it said. “Growth in sales of wiring systems, cable harnesses and automotive cables more than compensated for weak business involving industrial wire and cable products,” a company statement said, adding: “The wire and cable solutions unit’s new orders in the first half rose 3 percent to €840 million.” In other sectors, Leoni scaled down capacity at a plant in Stolberg, Germany, after cable projects for the petrochemical industry in Iran were canceled following international trade sanctions; shifted a production line to Mexico from Morocco; and reduced output of household appliance cables in China. Car industry shows increased wire demand

EUROPE NEWS

wiredInUSA - September 2013

31