Production process

NLMK La Louvière manufactures hot- and cold-rolled coils serving automotive, general construction industries and pressure vessels manufacturers among others. It continuously expands its product range with new steel grades such as cold forming and deep drawing, structural and pipe steels and high carbon steels as well as dual phase, ferro-bainitic steels and other advanced steel grades.

The slabs are re-rolled on the hot strip mill to be later processed on the cold rolling mill for more specific properties.

During the hot strip’ process route, slabs are heated in two walking-beam furnaces and subsequently reduced in the roughing mill to a transfer bar of 27 mm which is coiled in a coil box.

This coiled transfer bar is rolled in the finishing train to produce a hot rolled coil in the dimensions required by the customer.

The hot rolled coils are cooled and then dispatched to customers or the pickling and skin-passing area.

The annual production capacity reaches 1,800,000 tonnes a year.

The cold rolling process is divided into three stages. First, the oxide coat is removed from hot-rolled coils during the pickling phase when they pass through several baths with hydrochloric acid.

Then, the reversible cold rolling mill reduces the thickness of pickled coils by several passes.

Finally, during the skinpassing stage the coild acquire the mechanical properties and the surface condition required by customers.

These processes have a production capacity of 1,000,000 tonnes per year for the pickled hot-rolled coils and 400,000 tonnes per year for the cold-rolled coils.