POSCO-Thainox Public Company Limited (POSCO-Thainox), Thailand’s only manufacturer and distributor of premium cold-rolled stainless steel sheets and coils, was founded on 30 July 1990 as a joint venture between world leading steel industry groups from France (Arcelor), Japan (Nippon Steel), and Thai investors. On 20 September 2011, global steel and stainless steel manufacturer POSCO acquired Thainox.
POSCO-Thainox’s manufacturing facility is the first and most advanced of its kind in the entire ASEAN region. POSCO-Thainox has an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons. To better serve the company’s existing customer base as well as support its growth and rising demands for stainless steel consumption, a capacity increase to 300,000 tons is planned.
POSCO-Thainox supplies 60 percent of its premium-quality stainless steel products for applications in various industries domestically, and exports 40 percent of its output to more than 30 countries across the globe through strong networks. Since its establishment, POSCO-Thainox has increased its domestic and global market share at an annual compounded growth rate of 20 percent.
As POSCO-Thainox annual production increased, so too did its acid consumption, waste water generation and other environmental liabilities. Given these challenges, POSCO-Thainox was seeking technology that could reduce H2SO4 and HNO3-HF pickling acid consumption, the environmental impact of NOX emissions, waste water generation, and waste sludge, as well as improve production availability of the annealing and pickling lines. Improved surface quality of the finished product was also an important consideration.
Scanacon has been instrumental in achieving POSCO-Thainox goals, supplying various pieces of acid management equipment. Initially, Scanacon supplied a SA70 Acid Manager as well as acid recovery, filtration and circulation solutions for the Cold Rolled Annealing & Pickling Line (CAPL). When the Hot Rolled Annealing & Pickling Line (HAPL) was installed, the same acid management technologies from Scanacon were included from the design stage.
More than 35 percent HF and 40 percent HNO3 are saved annually, and NOx emissions are kept under the control limit without any “Denox” unit required. A waste-sludge landfill reduction of 50 percent has been achieved. Importantly, with Scanacon, finishing process control, line uptime, productivity and quality is continuously ensured.
Scanacon supplied a complete acid management solution to POSCO-Thainox, including:
"The Scanacon acid management system is easy to use and maintain. Pickling has never been controllable like this before."
– AP Manager
