Li Pi Hsien,
Chairman, Lianzhong Stainless Steel Corporation, China
SUSTAINABLE STAINLESS
STEEL MANUFACTURING
Interview with Li Pi Hsien
Chairman, Lianzhong Stainless Steel Corporation, China
China’s consumption of stainless steel now leads all nations in the world. To reduce imports, China’s share of global stainless steel production has risen from approximately 8% to over 12% in the last three years. After an investment of 800 million US dollars and a five-year construction period, the Lianzhong Stainless Steel Corporation (LISCO), part of the E-United Group, has become the leading integrated stainless steel manufacturer in southern China. Li Pi Hsien, Chairman of LISCO, talks about the market situation, environmentally sustainable technologies, and Andritz’s contribution.
Personal background
After graduating from School of Laws at Osaka City University, Japan, I joined the E-United Group. I have been working for the steel industry for more than 20 years now. I also served as Chairman of the Boards of I-Shou University, Taiwan, and as congressman for the Taiwanese Congress (two times for six years) At present, I am Chairman of the Board at Lianzhong Stainless Steel Corporation, and Member of the Boards of the E-United Group’s other subsidiary companies.
Company background
Since its establishment as Yieh Hsing Enterprise in 1978, the E-United Group of Taiwan has expanded from its core steel business into the education, medical, and real estate sectors. This demonstrates the Group’s commitment to paying back to society. Our intention from our founding has been to keep investing so we can make contributions to the general public.
The LISCO subsidiary, for which I am responsible, has about 1,800 employees. Here on the Chinese mainland, LISCO is a portfolio project for E-United Group, which means we play an important role in the Group’s sustainable expansion.
Our customers are mainly in the Pearl River Delta, which is the largest consuming region of stainless steel in China. Because the GDP of China is growing so fast and the middle-class population in China has more available income, I strongly believe that the consumption of stainless steel will also show continued growth in the future.
The Guangzhou facility
Our integrated facility at Guangzhou is one of the largest and environmentally most advanced stainless steel production facilities in the world.
The facility has the first integrated WRAP line (white rolling, annealing, pickling, skin pass mill, and tension levelling) in the world. It is over 600 meters long and the stainless strip length is over 2,000 meters.
The line we call HAPL #1 is one of the largest and fastest annealing and pickling lines for hot-rolled stainless steel strip in the world. It is 555 meters long and has a capacity of up to 800,000 tons per year. It is truly an international line, featuring the most advanced equipment from Andritz and other international suppliers. It is the first in China that can process strip up to 10 mm thickness, which is in strong demand by the petrochemical industry.
The acid regeneration plant uses the Andritz Pyromars process and is the world’s largest regeneration system for mixed acids. It has the highest efficient acid recovery rate in China.
The CAPL, supplied by Andritz, can produce up to 3 mm thick cold-rolled strip. It, too, has the most advanced technology, which fits into our overall strategy.
Andritz relationship
There is a history of cooperation between Andritz and the E-United Group, dating back almost 25 years. Andritz has supplied pickling lines for carbon steel, skin pass mills, roll grinding machines, acid regeneration systems, degreasing lines, and complete annealing and pickling lines for hot-rolled and cold-rolled stainless steel strip. In total, there have been about 20 projects over the years. We are most definitely a good customer for Andritz and everything speaks in favor of continuing this long-term relationship.
The HAPL #1 project
The main drivers for our investment in the hot-strip line were to meet the demand of a vigorously growing market and to become a strong competitor for thick hot-rolled sheets. Of all the projects we have done with Andritz, the HAPL #1 project is the most remarkable in my mind.
When we signed the contract with Andritz, we scheduled “first coil” processing for April 2005. It was actually achieved on April 28, 2005. This is quite remarkable considering the difficulties we experienced with the civil work which was outside Andritz’s scope, and the delivery of terminal equipment. Even with the delays in these areas, Andritz, in cooperation with LISCO, still managed to install, commission, and start-up the line on schedule. For example, the strip transport drives were not installed and started up until the beginning of April. Two weeks later, Andritz had stainless steel strip threaded into the line for the first time. The furnace dry-out was actually completed one week ahead of schedule.
The high speed of commissioning was, I believe, due to skillful project and site management on Andritz’s part and the tireless work of LISCO’s commissioning team. It is an example of successful cooperation between partners.
Performance
First, the project schedule was adhered to even though the local supply was not delivered on time. This was an outstanding achievement. As far as operation is concerned, the performance of the Andritz equipment is improving daily. The process is stable and this is the most important aspect. We have been able to achieve our targets in terms of production, quality, reliability, maintainability, and environmental compliance. My people have a very close cooperation with Andritz. We continually learn from each other. This cooperation is the result of long-term trust and respect. Andritz’s most important strength is that it thinks from the customer's side to offer the best service possible.
Sustainable production
Bearing in mind that the earth is our common home, sustainable development in the stainless steel manufacturing industry is critical. We are using very advanced technologies at LISCO to reduce our demands on the environment.
For example, all of our heating processes use clean LPG as a source of energy and low NOx burners to minimize air emissions. Exhaust gases are discharged via dust collection systems, which prevent solid particulates from entering the atmosphere. Liquid waste streams from the hot-strip mill and cold-rolling plant are recovered and recycled. Only very small amounts are discharged to the waste treatment plant. The quality of the discharged water meets the environmental regulations. We use Andritz’s Pyromars technology for recycling acid from the annealing and pickling lines. The 96% recovery rate cuts our production costs and minimizes discharges. This factory is even equipped with sound protection enclosures to abate noise pollution.