Every four years, the Düsseldorf trade fair quartet GIFA, METEC, THERMPROCESS and NEWCAST opens its doors to the ‟Bright World of Metals“, one of the leading platforms for the international metals industry. From 12 to 16 June 2023, SMS group, leading provider of metallurgical systems solutions for the steel and non-ferrous metals industries, will be showing latest technologies and solution concepts, above all for sustainable metals production, at its booth E40/41 in hall 1. The key topics covered will be the decarbonization of production, the circular economy and the concept of an integrated lifecycle management.

The SMS booth will be part of the ecoMetalTrail, a program launched by the trade fair organizer Messe Düsseldorf. The ecoMetals logo is granted to exhibitors who make an outstanding contribution to the protection of the climate with their products, processes and technologies.

#turningmetalsgreen: The green transformation of the metallurgical industry

With its mission #turningmetalsgreen, SMS group is set to spur the transformation of the metals industry to become greener in the future. The goal of this mission is to create carbon-neutral and future-oriented solutions and process, develop and implement eco-friendly technologies, optimize processes and equipment, promote recycling and support its customers in achieving their sustainability targets.

Sustainable projects

During the trade fair, SMS group will be giving an overview of its product and performance range developed over its 150-year history, spotlighting some of its current reference projects:

• thyssenkrupp is building the first hydrogen-powered direct reduction plant at its Duisburg location, marking the start of one of the biggest industrial decarbonization projects worldwide. SMS group has been placed the order for the engineering, delivery and construction of the plant, including the peripheral facilities. Once in operation, the plant will avoid more than 3.5 million tons of CO₂ per year. The order volume for SMS group amounts to over 1.8 billion euros – the largest single order in the history of the company.
• SMS has been selected to provide all of the technology and equipment for the H2 Green Steel project in Sweden. The project will see SMS group, including Paul Wurth and its consortium partner Midrex, supply the entire process equipment from ironmaking to the finished steel products for the world’s first industrial-scale steel plant based on hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources and designed to be almost carbon-neutral along the entire process chain.
• Primobius, a joint venture SMS has entered into with Australian Neometals, provides innovative solutions in another field. The JV is specialized in the recycling of lithium ion batteries. By means of its novel hydrometallurgical process, over 90 percent of the raw materials contained in LIBs, e.g. nickel, cobalt and lithium, can be highly efficiently recovered and reused in new batteries. The Primobius hydrometallurgical process achieves higher recycling rates than thermal processes and causes almost no CO₂ emissions.
• For Aurubis, SMS will build a multimetal recycling plant for e-scrap at the Aurubis location in Richmond, USA. This state-of-the-art facility will process complex recycling materials to recover copper, nickel, tin, zinc, precious metals, and platinum group materials for reuse in the value creation chain, thus making an important contribution to resource-saving production.

SMS group’s new Lifecycle Services portfolio is geared towards making processes more sustainable and more energy-efficient. To this end, SMS has combined the areas of Electrics & Automation, Technical Service and Digitalization into a powerful integrated unit.

This new set-up makes it possible to provide integrated solutions that ensure and even enhance the performance of production plants during their entire lifecycle. The solutions focus on performance indicators, such as plant availability, product quality, productivity and timeliness of delivery, but also on sustainability and safety. The provision of integrated services within the framework of performance-based business models, such as Equipment-as-a-Service, forms the basis for long-term partnerships during which SMS relieves its customers from activities to give them more time and capacities to focus on their core competencies.

“Climate protection and economic efficiency must go hand in hand to achieve real, sustainable effects and successful results in the long term,” emphasizes Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of SMS group and President of METEC. “We have set ourselves the goal to make the metals industry greener and more competitive. In pursuit of this goal, we vigorously promote the development of innovative technologies and processes that make a positive contribution to society and the environment. The Metec trade fair is the perfect platform to drive our mission forward as it brings the key players of our industry together.”

The SMS group booth: A venue for exchanging ideas and networking 

The open design of the 700 square meter trade fair booth provides the perfect setting as a meeting point for conversation and the exchange of information and ideas. Visitors are invited to attend the

‟Leading Partner Talks“, moderated discussion rounds with experts staged in a live studio several times a day. The booth resembles the architecture of the new, modern SMS group Campus in Mönchengladbach, which will be ready for occupancy before the end of this year.

The European Metallurgical Steel Technology and Application Days (ESTAD 2023) will take place concurrently with the METEC trade show at the Congress Centrum Düsseldorf (CCD). SMS group will be prominently represented at the conference with about 50 technical papers featuring the company’s latest developments and reference projects. Aspects of the steelmaking process, additive manufacturing, carbon footprint reduction and Industry 4.0 will be the main topics covered. In addition, five SMS group experts will give papers on copper production and process visualization at the EMC European Metallurgy Conference.