Steel solutions
From the finest galvanized wires to the largest steel beams in the world, a large range of products is offered by ArcelorMittal production units in Luxembourg. More than 150 years of expertise are found in each rail, angle, fiber and beam leaving our factories.
Sheet piles
They are mainly produced by Train 2 on the Belval site, apart from the HZ® range which is produced by Mill Grey in Differdange. Mill 2 produces the AZ® sheet pile range which includes the largest in the world, the AZ®-800. They are used to retain earth or water to create quay walls, dykes, underground car parks, tunnels, bridges or roads.
Sections and beams
They are produced by TMB (Train Moyen Belval) and Mill Grey in Belval and Differdange. Beams and sections are integrated into the foundations, structures and/or floors of buildings. TMB specializes in the production of light and medium beams. Mill Grey has a product range from medium to heavy beams. It holds the record for the widest and heaviest beams in the world, called Super Jumbos.
Rails and special sections
They are produced by Mill A in Rodange to be integrated into public transport. Mill A specializes in grooved rails used for tramways, but also some of the strongest rails for port cranes and overhead cranes in the world.
Wires and fibers
They are produced by ArcelorMittal Bissen for fencing in agriculture and reinforcement of structures in construction.
How is steel made in Luxembourg?
At the entrance to the steelworks, scrap metal, the main raw material, is transported to a storage area.
Scrap metal comes from various origins, mainly within a 300km radius of our sites:
- falls in processing industries, including the automobile industry;
- used consumer goods (scrap cars, household appliances, cans of food or drinks);
- steel from the demolition of buildings;
The quality of the scrap metal is decisive for the quality of the steel. They are controlled to isolate elements likely to modify the characteristics of the products manufactured. The less noble ones are cleaned by magnetic sorting.
Different categories of scrap are then mixed in order to meet customer needs and ensure an optimal melting process.
The baskets of scrap metal arrive at the electric furnace, where the teams prepare the injections and mixtures necessary for the fusion. The fusion is carried out using the radiation energy of an electric arc, supplemented by the heat of combustion from natural gas burners.
The electric arc is produced by the passage of a direct current of more than 135,000 amperes between the electrode and the anode located at the bottom of the furnace tank. The temperature inside the oven then exceeds 1600⁰C, allowing the scrap metal to melt.
The steel is refined by insufflation with oxygen, and the lime is used to form a slag to capture unwanted impurities contained in the scrap metal.
When the charge is completely melted, the oven is emptied. The steel is then poured into a ladle and transported to the ladle furnace.
In the ladle furnace, the steel is desulphurized and “graded”, that is to say refined by the addition of alloys which will achieve the mechanical properties specified by customers.
Throughout the treatment, the steel pocket is maintained at temperature by three electrodes, introduced directly into the steel bath.
When the chemical analysis and the ideal temperature are reached, the steel ladle is ready for continuous casting.
Arriving at the continuous casting, the steel ladle is emptied into a distributor serving both as a steel distributor and a buffer tank during ladle changing.
The liquid steel flows into an ingot mold which allows its progressive solidification in contact with a water-cooled mold. The thickness of the skin reaches around ten millimeters. At the exit of the ingot mold, the steel is solidified and can be cut by flame cutting to the length required by the rolling mills, creating semi-finished product, also called “beam-blank” or “bloom”.
It is necessary to reheat the semi-finished product to a temperature of approximately 1200°C in a reheating oven to be able to work the steel and give it its final shape during rolling.
Rolling allows the thickness of the steel to be reduced and the product to be given its final shape. It causes an elongation of the product up to a hundred meters.
After cooling, the product is brought to the ordered length and prepared for shipping. The now finished product can then be loaded onto a truck or wagon.