Thyssenkrupp Starts Operation of New Electron-Beam Titanium Furnace in Germany

ThyssenKrupp (FRA:TKA) (Dusseldorf, Germany) started operations of its electron-beam titanium furnace last week. The company has invested $38.6 million in this project, which also includes a vacuum-arc furnace that was commissioned at the end of 2006. According to a report by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, TX), this electron-beam furnace, Europe's latest and most advanced melting facility, is located in Essen, Germany.

The furnace has been designed to process titanium scrap and titanium sponge in different ratios. This operation will enable the company to focus on raw material availability within Europe and reduce dependence on imports from other continents. Titanium sponge and scrap are extensively available in Europe. Titanium slabs form a large part of ThyssenKrupp's product offering. The new titanium furnace can melt 1.2 tons of titanium per hour and produce two slabs a day, each weighing up to 15 tons. Earlier operations could produce slabs weighing up to 7.5 tons.

Titanium is a light metal with high tenacity and anti-corrosion properties. The metal has the strength of steel, although it is 45 percent lighter. Titanium is used widely in the aerospace industry. It is also used in water-desalination plants, ship building, chemical-plant construction, power plant heat exchangers and medical engineering. Titanium production has been an integral part of ThyssenKrupp's business portfolio for more than three decades. ThyssenKrupp Titanium, which is a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Stainless, has been working with customers in the automotive, aerospace, chemical, medical equipment and engineering industries worldwide. The manufacturing unit at Essen, which supplies the medical-engineering and aerospace sectors, also produces titanium ingots for its Terni plant in Italy. The Terni operations include production of coils, sheets and welded tubes for industrial use. The Essen and Terni units employ 160 and 130 people respectively. In 2006-07, the ThyssenKrupp Group, which employees 190,000 people, recorded sales of $65.6 billion. The titanium manufacturing division had global sales of $181.5 million in the same year.

The aerospace industry is one of the largest industrial consumers of titanium, consuming 45-50 percent of the titanium produced globally. Aircraft majors Airbus (Blagnac, France) and Boeing (Chicago, IL) will be introducing their new range of A380 and 787 dream liners, and titanium forms 22 percent of the weight of these new-generation aircraft. The Boeing 787 will require 113 tons of titanium per plane, while the A380 will need 90 tons. The ongoing strike by Boeing employees is causing concern among titanium producers. Boeing has a delivery plan of 25 aircrafts in 2009 and 45-50 by 2010.There is already an 18-month delay in the delivery of Boeing 787 aircraft. Experts indicate that if the strike continues for another two months, then the aircraft manufacturers will be carrying titanium inventory to last until 2010. This will impact future titanium production of titanium in the short-term.

In the long term, according to a research study conducted by Merchant Research and Consulting Limited (Birmingham, United Kingdom), the demand for high-grade titanium in the aerospace sector is expected to grow at the rate of 7 percent every year. The study indicates that the fleet of aircraft worldwide will double by 2025. Pratt & Whitney, part of United Technologies Corporation (Hartford, CT), Rolls Royce Group plc (London) and General Electric Company (Fairfield, CT) are developing new-age, fuel-efficient engines that are expected to accelerate the demand from airline companies in the future.

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