The Ternium Siderar steel plant in San Nicolas, Argentina, experienced a period of singleblast furnace operation in 2006, first due to one furnace’s unavailability, and later dueto the other’s relining. In order to exploit the excess steelmaking capacity, processeswere adjusted to reduce the amount of hot metal needed for the production of a ton ofsteel. The principal changes in the process are described in this paper: an increase inthe manganese content of hot metal to avoid manganese addition in the converter; heatingof scrap; coke additions; increase in pig iron; use of large quantities of SiC or FeSiduring the blow; temperature decrease at the end of the blow. All of this permitted anincrease in slab production compared with the standard process.
