New Urban Relics
februari 13, 2026
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This sinter plant, founded in the late 1960s, is part of a larger steel group that manufactures, designs, and exports a complete range of water transport solutions (water pipes, cast iron, and gray cast iron for buildings and urban sanitation). At this plant, raw iron ore was converted into agglomerated iron ore suitable for blast furnaces. The plant has a production capacity of 660,000 tons of agglomerated iron ore, equivalent to 375,000 tons of ductile iron.
The raw iron ore was stored in large tanks containing the raw materials needed to produce agglomerated ore: castine, fluxes, already agglomerated ore, etc. Then, depending on demand, they are placed on conveyor belts in very precise quantities to be conveyed to ore mixing drums, which will mix the ore.
The mixed iron ore is placed on an agglomeration line, consisting of frames called a combustion bucket or 'pallet'; burners heat the ore to approximately 800°C. Once the ore is heated to red, it leaves the furnace and enters the agglomeration chain. Here, suction fans accelerate combustion and raise the ore's temperature to 1,000–1,200°C. At the end of the sintering line, the ore is crushed by a set of giant steel teeth (called a 'hedgehog'), which sinter the iron ore to a particle size acceptable for a blast furnace.
Due to the crisis in the steel industry in the 1980s and a continued decline in demand for cast iron, the blast furnaces required less sinter to operate, which resulted in a decline in production at the plant. This industrial facility was large enough to supply three nearby blast furnaces. When two of these furnaces were closed, fixed costs became too high to keep the company profitable. Between 2016 and 2017, the sinter plant operated at only 45% of its capacity, leading to its shutdown in 2018, with the possibility of a restart if demand increased again.
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