Melt shop assessment leads to 10% increase of annual production of El Marakby's minimill for rebar and wire rod
Summary
- 350,000 t/year annual melt shop design productivity
- Growing demand for rebar and wire rod for local market and export requires higher annual output
El Marakby has a long history of partnership with SMS group. In year 2016, the first milestone of this partnership was set with the start-up of the new EAF (electric arc furnace) meltshop in Giza, Egypt. In 2019, we completed El Marakby’s first minimill project with the start-up of the downstream 400,000 t/year rebar and wire rod mill.
On-site assessment
As market demands and industries evolved over time, the need for greater production efficiency led to further collaboration between El Marakby and SMS. As part of the El Marakby minimill efficiency analysis, an SMS team inspected the plant on-site for a week, analyzing meltshop performance data as well as operation, production processes, coordination and raw material supply chains. The overall analysis of the data obtained revealed focus areas that can be optimized to increase production capacity.
SMS group developed a strategy designed for the current plant situation as well as the raw material limiting market situation of El Marakby. Part of the strategy was different operational improvements as well as an evaluation of the scrap supply and processing chain. Additionally, El Marakby decided to invest in scrap preparation equipment as scrap density was already previously identified as an action point.
SMS group bundles core competencies from the areas of digitalization, electrics and automation, metallurgy, operations and technology as well as technical service and consulting. In this context, SMS group together with El Marakby was able to achieve an annual increase in production of around 10% compared to the previous production data by optimizing the key areas at El Marakby’s meltshop.
Mr. Hassan El Marakby, owner and CEO of El Marakby, looks back with pleasure on the cooperation with SMS group: "The assessment of the melt shop carried out by SMS group stimulated the plant operator team on site far beyond the nominal production and trained the team with regard to optimized production processes. SMS group was a reliable partner both during the preparation, coordination and conduction of the assessment”.