CubaPLUS Magazine

A solid and safe path in Cuba. It treasures its excellent work guaranteed by more than three decades of existence. Derivados del Acero (DA) is a leading organization in the production and commercialization of steel wire derivatives, articles and their derivatives, coated electrodes for welding and others in Cuba. The company has more than three decades experience of excellent work, commended by its customers with satisfaction and confidence, thanks to a wide range of products certified as high quality. It is part of the Business Group of the Steelworking Industry (GESIME), belonging to the Ministry of Industries. As part of the industrialization process of the city of Nuevitas, the factories that make up the company were created in 1963, when the then Minister of the sector, Ernesto Che Guevara, founded the first of its kind in Camagüey, specifically in the municipality of Nuevitas. Currently, it is composed of two fundamental UEB (Business Unit):

Metallurgical UEB of Camagüey
The productive process of this installation begins with the arrival of the wire rod, the main raw material from which all the products are derived. It is made of low and medium carbon steel with SAE 1006, 1008, 1010 and 1020 quality of origin. It is received in the diameters 5.50 mm, 6.00 mm and 6.50 mm. The UEB has 4 productive processes: Drawing, Galvanizing, Wire-braiding and Electrodes.

WIRE DRAWING WORKSHOP
1. The drawing process has 2 main areas: Stripping and Wire Drawing. The mechanical stripping is where the process begins, to eliminate the superficial oxides deposited in the wire rod, and ends with an exit inspection where it is identified and distributed to the different drawing machines where it will be processed. In the drawing process, electrode input wires, galvanized wires, wire for nails, wire mesh for wagons and grooved wires are produced.

GALVANIZING WORKSHOP
2. The galvanizing process consists of immersing steel wires in a bath of molten zinc in order to coat the wire surface with a layer, protecting it from oxidizing environmental agents such as humidity and salinity.

WIRE BRAIDING WORKSHOP
3. The braiding process is totally mechanical, in which the wires from the galvanizing process are braided and barbed at certain distances, so they can be used efficiently in the division of livestock and crop lands.

ELECTRODE WORKSHOP
4. In the electrode workshop, several combined technological operations take place: cutting of the input wires coming from the wire drawing for the manufacture of electrodes; preparation of the mass to be used as part of the coating; dry mixing, an operation where the mass is submitted to a homogenizing process and then passed to the technological operation called wet mixing, where potassium or sodium silicate is added to achieve the required consistency of the mass to be pressed.

MINAS
The UEB Derivados del Alambre located in Minas belonging to this company was established in 1989. Its social objective is framed by the production of electrowelded wire mesh, galvanized wire mesh, rectangular knotted wire mesh, known as pig mesh, plastic-coated wire mesh and nails.

NAIL WORKSHOP (NAILS)
1. The UEB’s production process consists of a nail workshop where different types of nails are manufactured from 1x16 to 6x5, using wire diameters from 1.60 to 5.50 mm.

MESH WORKSHOP
2. Produced in this workshop is chain link mesh with galvanized wire, chain link mesh with plasticized wire (known as peerless) and the rectangular knotted mesh or pig mesh.

ELECTRO-WELDED MESH WORKSHOP
3. In the electro-welded mesh workshop, panels or rolls of mesh are manufactured with drawn wires, with diameters from 4 to 7 mm.

Since February 1989, the Business Union of Wires and Electrodes (Unión Empresarial de Base Metalúrgica Alambres y Electrodos) in that coastal town has carried out a series of productions, which in just 2019 allowed it to provide more than 1,360 tons of important products.

Located to the north, Nuevitas is one of the main industrial cities in the country. Its metallurgical plant is unique in its type on the Caribbean island, and has four production workshops: Stripping and Wire-drawing, Galvanizing, Barbed Wire and Welding Electrodes.

Contact
Calle Avellaneda, No. 411, e/ San José y Francisquito, Camagüey.
Phone: +53 5213 6600
+53 5285 0955
Email: odalys@dacero.cu