Iron Plant 1 at Highveld Industrial Park for sale

9th February 2018 By: Creamer Media Reporter

Iron Plant 1 at Highveld Industrial Park for sale

Production at the Highveld Steel complex, in Witbank Mpumalanga was halted after the steel producer, EVRAZ Highveld Steel and Vanadium Limited, was placed into business rescue in April 2015.

However, a business strategy was set in motion to convert the steel complex, into the Highveld Industrial Park and to see the park capitalise on its strategic location and key facilities. The current strategy includes the selling of strategic assets and the lease of workshops and other facilities on site and currently there are in excess of twenty tenants on site.

One of the key strategic assets for sale at the Highveld Industrial Park is Iron Plant 1, which Highveld is currently in the process of seeking potential purchasers for. This asset offers investors a unique opportunity to acquire a versatile, state-of-the-art smelter plant capable of profitably producing a range of products including Pig Iron, Ferro Alloys and valuable slag by-products from fines.

The smelter plant boasts three modern Open Slag Bath furnaces, as well as 10 pre-reduction or preheating kilns. There is significant flexibility in operation as it is possible to spilt the plant into different product streams; with an estimated ramp-up to full production in approximately 12-16 weeks, the lead time to market is significantly reduced when compared to the construction of a similar sized smelter plant.
Key features of the asset are as follows:

• The furnaces each have three self-baking electrodes and the movements are hydraulically controlled.
• Venturi scrubbers installed on each furnace clean the gas generated during the smelting operation.
• The CO rich gas is then collected in a gas holder and used as fuel for heating purposes in the works.

Open slag bath 3
Furnace Transformer Rating 1,5 &6 = 45MVA
Normal Power Input per Furnace 3 x 34MW
Tap to Tap Time 4 - 5 hrs.
Tap Weight 80 tons

Each furnace is equipped with four tap holes – two for metal and two for slag.

As illustrated above, Iron Plant 1 is positioned and designed to offer an investor the opportunity to produce a wide range of products.

The Iron Plant is situated in the ideal location in the heartland of South Africa’s mining and power producing hub and is also linked to national roads and highways, including the N4. The industrial park also owns a private rail siding linked to the major rail networks.

Highveld Industrial Park’s infrastructure is perfectly designed to cater for the successful bidder of Iron Plant 1, as it includes a 350 MW mVA direct supply of electricity from Eskom and a direct supply of reasonably priced raw water supplied directly from the municipal dam through a dedicated pipeline, as well as water purification facilities to deliver potable water.

Energy and chemical group Sasol supply methane-rich gas, while gas producers African Oxygen and Air Liquide, with plants located on the premises, can supply industrial gas such as oxygen, nitrogen and argon.

If you wish to register your interest to participate in the bidding process for the purchase of Iron Plant 1, you are invited to send an e-mail to ironplant@hipark.co.za which shall contain, if relevant, a company name, registration number, telephone number and e-mail address, indicating your interest to purchase the plant.  Following which Highveld will provide you with the necessary details of the bidding process.