ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih Restarts Blast Furnace No. 9
07/06/2009 - ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih announces its Blast Furnace No. 9 has been blown in, after being shut down for repairs since November 7, 2008.
ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih announced that its Blast Furnace No. 9 has been blown in, on time and in good condition. The blast furnace had been shut down for repairs beginning on November 7, 2008.
The company said it was restarting Blast Furnace No. 9 in anticipation of stoppages of two other blast furnaces in the coming weeks for planned maintenance. The facility’s Blast Furnace No. 8 is to be stopped for scheduled repair and Blast Furnace No. 7 is to be stopped for capital repair. Restarting Blast Furnace No. 9 while the other two blast furnaces are stopped will allow the company to maintain a pig iron capacity of 400,000 tonnes/month.
“We restarted the Blast Furnace No. 9 after long-term stoppage,” said ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih Chief Production Officer Vladimir Sheremet. “During its downtime repairs were made. At the same time the costs reduction initiatives were made and most part of works were fulfilled by means of the enterprise. The main supposition to restart the Blast Furnace No. 9 was the tight terms of the stoppage of the Blast Furnace No. 8 for scheduled repair and the Blast Furnace No. 7 of the secondary class – for the capital repair.
“Undoubtedly, we need to give our employees confidence in the future, to stabilize the production,” added Sheremet. “Putting into operation the Blast Furnace No. 9 enabled this task solving.”
“Undoubtedly, we need to give our employees confidence in the future, to stabilize the production,” added Sheremet. “Putting into operation the Blast Furnace No. 9 enabled this task solving.”
The restart of Blast Furnace No. 9 was attended by participants of the Iron Industry Institute (Z.I. Nekrasov), whose specialists had supported the startup work. ArcelorMittal Kryviy Rih CEO Jean Jouet emphasized the competences and professionalism of the teams that were involved in the reline. He added that, “If demand from the market would recover, we will have the opportunity to push the productivity of the Blast Furnace No. 9 at requested level”.
