Every four years, the Düsseldorf trade fair quartet Gifa, Metec, Thermprocess and Newcast offers one of the most important platforms for the metallurgical industry under the motto “Bright World of Metals”.
SMS will be present at Metec from June 12 to 16, 2023, as a leading supplier of metallurgical system solutions in the steel and non-ferrous metal industries and will mainly showcase technologies and solution approaches for sustainable metal production in Hall 1 at Booth E40/41. A particular focus is on decarbonization of production, circular economy and integrated lifecycle management.
The SMS booth is part of the EcoMetalTrail, an initiative of Messe Düsseldorf. The EcoMetals logo recognizes exhibitors whose products, processes and technologies make a special contribution to climate protection.
The green transformation of the metallurgical industry
With its “Turningmetalsgreen” mission, SMS aims to drive the transformation of the metals industry to a greener future. The aim is to create CO2-neutral and future-oriented solutions and processes, develop and implement environmentally friendly technologies, optimize processes and plants, promote recycling and support customers in achieving their sustainability goals.
Sustainable projects
To demonstrate the range of services offered by the SMS Group, current reference projects will be presented at the trade fair in addition to the 150-year history of the company. These include:
➢ thyssenkrupp will build the first hydrogen-fired direct reduction plant at the Duisburg site, which is also one of the world’s biggest decarbonization projects. The SMS group has been entrusted with the engineering, supply and construction of the plant including peripherals. This will save more than 3.5 million tons of CO2 per year in the future. The order volume for the SMS Group amounts to over 1.8 billion euros – the largest single order in the company’s history.
➢ SMS supplies the complete technology and equipment for the “H2 Green Steel” project in Sweden. Together with Paul Wurth, an SMS Group company, and its consortium partner Midrex, SMS will supply the entire process equipment from pig iron production to the finished products of the world’s first industrial steel mill based on hydrogen and electricity from renewable sources. The plant is designed to achieve almost complete CO2 avoidance throughout the entire process chain.
➢ The company’s innovative solutions also include Primobius, a joint venture between SMS and the Australian company Neometals. Primobius specializes in the remanufacturing of lithium-ion batteries. With the help of a novel hydrometallurgical process, more than 90 percent of the valuable materials such as nickel, cobalt and lithium can be recovered particularly efficiently and reused in new batteries. In contrast to thermal recycling methods, the Primobius hydrometallurgical process offers higher recyclability of raw materials and produces almost no CO2 emissions.
➢ For the recycling of electronic scrap, SMS is building a multi-metal recycling plant for Aurubis at the Richmond site, USA. This state-of-the-art plant for processing complex recycling materials returns the valuable materials copper, nickel, tin and zinc as well as precious metals and metals of the platinum group to the value-adding cycle, thus making an important contribution to conserving resources.
With its newly created Lifecycle Services, SMS also declares its goal of making processes more sustainable and energy-efficient. To this end, the Electrics & Automation, Technical Service and Digitization units were combined to form a powerful unit.
Integrated solutions are offered that sustainably increase the performance of plants over their entire life cycle. The focus is on performance indicators such as plant availability, product quality, productivity and on-time delivery, but also sustainability and occupational safety. By combining integrated services with performance-based business models, such as Equipment-as-a-Service, SMS becomes a long-term partner that helps its customers focus on their core competencies.
“Climate protection and economic efficiency must go hand in hand so that we see real long-term effects and success,” emphasizes Burkhard Dahmen, CEO of the SMS Group and President of Metec. “We aim to make the metals industry greener and more competitive, and are working hard to develop innovative technologies and processes that make a positive contribution to society and the environment. Metec is the perfect platform to advance our mission as it brings together the key players in the industry.”
SMS Group invites to exchange and networking
The architecture of the 700 m² stand with its open design invites above all to dialog. In a live studio, moderated expert discussions take place several times a day for all interested visitors with the “Leading Partner Talks”. The design of the stand is based on the architecture of the SMS Group’s new state-of-the-art campus in Mönchengladbach, which the company will move into later this year.
Parallel program
SMS is prominently represented at the Estad 2023 conference (European Metallurgical Steel Technology and Application Days), which takes place parallel to Metec at the Congress Centrum Düsseldorf (CCD). In around 50 presentations, the company’s specialists will provide information on new developments and reference projects. The main topics will be steel production, additive manufacturing, CO2 reduction and Industry 4.0. Five experts from the Group will also be giving presentations on copper production and process visualization at the EMC European Metallurgy Conference.
