On December 29, 2018, the new cold rolling mill for copper strip supplied by SMS group has successfully started operation at the Chinese producer Zhejiang Huayuan Copper Co., Ltd.. The realization of the mill, beginning with order intake and finishing with commissioning, was performed in record speed. 

For Zhejiang Huayuan Copper Co., Ltd., SMS realized a cold rolling mill for copper strip within a project duration of only 15 months. The state-of-the-art mill in six-high design featuring CVC^®plus technology (Continuously Variable Crown) started operation on December 29, 2018 – this is already 34 days prior to the contracted due date. After the first strip was rolled to 1.2 millimeters final thickness at 1,050 millimeters strip width, further commissioning and the optimization of plant perfor­mance is proceeding efficiently, enabling Zhejiang Huayuan Copper Co., Ltd. to produce the complete product range with strip widths of up to 1,350 millimeters and a minimum final gauge of 0.15 millimeters before long.

Zhejiang Huayuan was very pleased with the performance of SMS group and regards it a confirmation of the decision to select SMS group as single-source supplier. Beside the engineering, the supply of mechanical components and the X-Pact^® electrical and automation systems, the scope of supply also includes site services and commissioning. Primarily responsible for order execution is the Chinese SMS Siemag Technology Co., Ltd., a company of SMS group. Core components for the CVC^®plus roll shifting technology being responsible for the quality of the products rolled and for the resource-saving rolling of the valuable copper material were supplied by SMS group from Germany.

The Chinese company located in Huayuan ranks among the leading providers of copper strip worldwide. Looking at the available strip width, it even takes the top position worldwide.