The last of Chongqing Steel’s three blast furnaces to be fully upgraded by CISDI has now been blown in.

The successful rebuild of blast furnace 3 follows the startup of blast furnaces 4 and 2 in September and November 2020.

The upgraded furnaces have achieved continuous improvements in the main ironmaking technical and economic indicators and created new output and productivity records for Chongqing.

Furnaces 3 and 2 now have a volume of 2,500 cubic metres; furnace 1’s volume is 1,780 cubic metres.

BF3’s upgrade took 58 days and includes hearth control, stove, hot blast piping and slag granulation systems. It has expanded the capacities of its PCI system and casthouse equipment. The ramp-up target is a daily minimum output of 7,000 tonnes of hot metal.

The rebuild of BF2 was completed in 62 days. It took only 3 days to ramp up to designed output, a record for China.

From blow-in to ramp-up, average daily productivity hit 3.08 tonnes per cubic metres. The daily average output is now 7,700 tonnes.

BF4 was rebuilt in 122 days. From blow-in to ramp-up, average daily productivity was 3.24 tonnes per cubic metre. The daily average output is now 5,670 tonnes.

CISDI has enabled the three blast furnaces to work fully together, helping Chongqing Steel to reach its 10-million-tonne annual production capacity.

Chongqing Steel’s blast furnace 3 has been blown in after rebuild

Chongqing Steel’s operational blast furnaces