Promising Young engineer from ArcelorMittal South Africa visited our plant
Chandini Singh, a metallurgical engineer at ArcelorMittal Vanderbijlpark, South Africa was awarded a tour of the Ghent, Belval and Differdange plants of ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products and Flat Products as a reward for winning the 2021 Engineering Symposium. Chandini shares her first-hand account of the time she spent in ArcelorMittal Belgium.
A life-changing tour
“My project, based on the replacement of ferrosilicon during heating in the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) lead to extensive cost-savings for the steel plant in ArcelorMittal, Newcastle. This resulted in my winning of the 2021 Engineering Symposium. This win awarded me the privilege of embarking on a life-changing tour of various European ArcelorMittal plants.”
“The trip comprised of tours in two locations: Luxembourg (ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products) and Belgium (ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products). My journey began on the 10th of November 2022, arriving in Luxembourg and a week later, in Ghent and concluded on the 28th of November 2022.”
“In Ghent, I spent three days in the sinter and blast furnace departments and two days in the steel plant. During this time, I had the opportunity to visit the sinter-making plant and the blast furnace, as well as the BOF, secondary metallurgy section and the casters. The teams at both iron- and steelmaking were welcoming and shared knowledge about their processes as well as projects being done towards process and cost optimization. I was also accompanied on a visit to the pickling lines.
I got a guided plant tour of the Ghent works, which was both educational and inspiring – the innovation regarding green steel initiatives is amazing. Green steel is real. The Torero and Steelanol plants stood out as the processes were ones which I had not previously known of, but they did open my mind as to what is possible within this wide industry of steel production. This stirred a mass of excitement within me.”
Main impressions
“One aspect I especially commend both Luxembourg and Belgium on, which was consistent during my walkabouts, is their focus in and drives on housekeeping within the plant. It is exemplary.”
“I appreciated the degree of automation and the utilization of robots for certain plant processes. It is my intention to communicate the advancements to the leaders in the South African plants, with the potential of implementation and integration into our processes. A presentation containing the process optimization detail of this will be compiled and submitted.”
“Overall, the itinerary and plant agendas were impeccably organized. The experience consisted of ample teachable moments, full of new knowledge and fresh ideas, leaving me excited about future endeavors on my path with ArcelorMittal.”
“I am truly grateful to ArcelorMittal South Africa for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It allowed me to broaden my knowledge and form fruitful relationships with my colleagues in different parts of the world, encouraging future collaboration.”
