With outdated technology of huge energy consumption, Thu Duc Steel JSC is keenly aware of its problems: the competition increases fiercely in the steel market, products with competitive price and quality stability will exist, thus the urgent demands for reducing the input costs are the top concerns of the Management. During the past time, Thu Duc Steel JSC has successfully implemented three typical improvements with investment into equipment upgrade to reduce energy consumption.

Firstly, it is well worth mentioning the renovation of intermediate frequency electric furnace to burn the steel bullions in the end of 2013. The Design & Manufacture Engineering Division, and the Steel Calendaring Workshop installed a furnace for rolling, comprising 4 modules, and 2 rotating docks using hot billet 150 cm x 150 cm x 6 m with continuous casting, running from the Steel Mill on rolling conveyer. The input work piece temperature ranges in 650-750°C, further heated with additional 250-300°C. Capacity of furnace: 30 tons of billet/hour. Power consumption for 1 ton of steel billet is 61-66 kWh/ton of product. With total investment of VND7 billion, the project has brought about the following outcome: Profit value compared with using CNG is VND97,500/ton; it reduces the billet depletion as compared with using CNG by VND 55,000/ton of product; labor reduction: 2 persons. Thus, if the average production is 10,000 tonnes a month, the company could save VND3 billion/month, not to mention the increased labor productivity.

Then to follow, it is the dust collection system installation, designed by the Mechanics & Electrics Workshop in coordination with Steel Mill workshop, with the motors bought from China. With total value of  VND13 billion, the dust collection system for steel furnace is installed with a capacity of 540,000 m3/hour, the production environment is improved, reducing the amount of dust. It is worth noting that the dust collection system is manufactured totally by the Company  itself which created and saved VND12 billion compared with the offered price of complete dust arrester system, available in the market at the time.

Finally, it is the installation of  4 screening machines with capacity of 4 tons of scrap/hour. This is the "3 in 1" joint effort, because it is the result of three combinations: the Technical Office assigned the Youth Union Unit to design, and the Steel Mill Workshop undertook the manufacture and assemble. The total value of the device is VND450 million, but the efficiency of the equipment is very high: this screening machine can process the smeared material sources to make it clean materials, the soil after being sieved off will be returned to land, to reduce the amount of additives, and contaminants during smelting, and thus to reduce fuel consumption.

Trong Tan