Our most extensive construction project to date was completed at the end of January 2024 and will go into trial operation in February. 

The concrete shell construction work for the main building (furnace house) was completed in December 2022. Special requirements were placed on the concrete construction to ensure the smooth installation of the plant: The copper smelting and separation furnace in particular, as well as the concrete skeleton at the core of the steel construction building, required a high degree of accuracy and rapid coordination of the plans. For 2023, the following remaining work remained from the concrete construction area: Flue gas cleaning, emergency power location and the construction of the delivery hall (L x W x H 70 x 30 x 12 m) for the pre-storage of input material. In addition to the massive concrete construction measures from the previous year (9,600 m³ of concrete and 900 tons of reinforcing steel installed), the focus this year was on steel construction assembly, as well as accompanying equipment assembly, which was expanded in the second half of the year to include the pipeline assembly phase and the insulation phase. 

Coordinating the many trades running in parallel is a challenge for the construction and project management teams and constantly poses new challenges. 

In the peak assembly phase, 19 different trades with a total of 165 employees are currently working on the construction site. The majority of the project partners are supplied by us with tools, lifting equipment, work platforms, scaffolding and recreation rooms to avoid collisions and due to the limited space available. 

Tightest scheduling

One of the biggest challenges for both our plant planner Hatch Küttner and for us was the insolvency of our largest subcontractor. This delayed the completion of the waste heat boiler enormously. The earthquake in Turkey had an impact on boiler and furnace production. Transport had to be reorganized and took place via the Black Sea, the Danube and other European ports in Italy and France to the Ennshafen port. The effort involved was enormous. The delay in delivery was compensated for as best as possible throughout the year with appropriate compensation and forcing measures and even tighter assembly phases.