Engineering firm receives overseas lift

The deal involves producing four mill housings and connecting beams for South Asia’s largest steel plate plant, which is operated by one of India’s largest corporations and its leading exporter of flat steel products, the Essar Group.

When bolted together, the mill stand will weigh more than 1,050 tonnes and will house a five metre wide rolling mill at Hazira Plate’s plant in Gujarat, which will have the capacity to produce 1.5 million tonnes of steel plate a year.

Two other Sheffield firms are playing key parts in the project.

Siemens VAI’s French subsidiary VAI Clecim is the main technology partner for the new plate mill plant, while Sheffield Forgemasters worked with Czech steel giant, Skoda Steel to produce the rough castings.

Sheffield Forgemasters produced the four leg castings, each weighing around 180 tonnes, but did not have the capacity to cast the 90 tonne tie beams in the tight timescale so they were sourced from Skoda’s plant in Pilzen and shipped to the UK.

The Hazira Plate mill stand is virtually identical in size and specification to an earlier order delivered by DavyMarkham to the Shagang steel company in China - the heaviest bolted rolling mill ever fabricated.

Before the mill stand is shipped to India, it will be test assembled at DavyMarkham’s Prince of Wales works in Darnal – a process that involves craning the 15 metre long legs into a four metre deep assembly pit, securing them with to the top and bottom tie beams with temporary bolts and fitting ancillary equipment.

Upon completion, the individual components will be painted, packed and sent to India via Humberside.