China-based Guangdong Century Castle Peak Nickel plans to increase nickel production capacity by 80pc. The annual nickel output of its plant will be raised to 36,850mt from 20,000mt. Nickel alloy output will be commensurately increased to 368,500mt, with nickel content at 10pc, according to local media.
Guangdong Century Castle Peak Nickel is a joint venture between Castle Peak Steel Philippines, a subsidiary of PGMC group, and Guangdong Jerry Technology group. The company has an installed capacity to produced 50,000mt nickel metal, annually. PGMC group has 500mn mt reserves of clay nickel ore area in the Philippines, which provide the company stable source of raw material.
The nickel alloy production plant has four drying kilns, four rotary kilns and 260,000KVA submerged arc furnaces. The stainless steel plant is equipped with a 120-ton EAF, four 75-ton AOD furnaces, two 75-ton LF furnaces. The plant also has a continuous casting unit for 200×1250mm slab, which produces 1mn mt of SS billets, annually.
In December 2016, the company transferred the SS mill equipment of its original project to group company Guangdong Guangqing Metal Technology and retained the nickel alloy production plant. In terms of actual production and operations, the existing unit of 2×60000kVA submerged arc furnace did not meet the design capacity, which limited its overall production capacity. With the expansion and technological upgrades, the company aims to improve production, reduce emission and energy losses and enhance its cost-efficiencies.
The expansion project includes upgrading the two existing 60,000kVA nickel alloy submerged arc furnaces and adjusting the operating parameters to increase productivity.