Industrial plant construction specialist SMS group has signed a major contract with steel company Qinghai Xigang New Materials (QXNM) – a subsidiary of metals company Xining Special Steel – to upgrade and provide related maintenance services for QXNM’s precision sizing mill, PSM380, which it uses to roll special steel bars.

The upgrade is aimed at enhancing the mill’s production efficiency and product quality.

SMS suggests that the project will help to satisfy QXNM’s requirements and boost its competitive position in the special steel market in China.

Given the increasing maintenance demands for the PSM380 mill, SMS has also outlined a comprehensive maintenance service package (TOS) based on SMS’s “life cycle partnership” concept.

This marks a new milestone for TOS services in China, effectively addressing customers’ concerns regarding equipment maintenance and providing strong support for their strategic goals relating to improved product quality.

Upon completion, the upgraded mill is expected to improve the products’ dimensional accuracy and effectively reduce labour costs in downstream processing stages. It will also be “substantially more efficient” in terms of changing specifications; downtimes will be reduced, and overall output increased.

The revamp will also guarantee more consistent product quality, significantly reduce bar head and tail cropping, and improve yield, thereby boosting the line’s yearly output.

Additionally, process adjustments will be made to ensure that the mill meets the production demands for more diversified steel grades, particularly a better microstructure and higher quality standards in low-temperature rolling processes. These improvements are set to enhance QXNM’s product quality and will likely increase its order volume.

This successful collaboration marks SMS’s further expansion into the Chinese market with its technical service business and injects new momentum into the continuous business development of QXNM.

SMS group will actively provide ongoing support as a life cycle partner to maintain and grow the plant’s performance going forward. Both parties look forward to achieving even more fruitful outcomes in future collaborations.